Your Eureka Moment

Hello, my name is Dawn and I am a very large woman.

(That guy I'm standing next to? He's 6'2" or so and squats 500lb for sets of TEN. He is a very large man.)

In the US, the average height for women is 5 feet, four and a half inches; the average height for men is 5 feet, ten inches. I am 5 feet 11 inches tall. I wear a women's US shoe size 11, my hands can span a whole octave on a piano, and my bras are so big they can double as a hat.

What I'm saying is, I am never going to have the build of a gymnast, or a horse jockey, and I'm never going to fit comfortably in a Mini Cooper or a coach airline seat. I will never be able to wear shoes in a size 8, or buy small gloves. I hit my head on things frequently. Bathroom counters are usually so low that washing my face in the sink makes my back hurt. My former boss (who is a dear, dear friend of mine) pointed out that in the professional world most women are intimidated by me and most men have instant respect for me, the former because I tend to tower over them whether I want to or not, and the latter because I hold conversations with them at eye level by default.

This state of hugeness is a basic truth about myself that I struggled with for a long time. I won't wax poetic here, but if you've stuck your head outside for more than about ten minutes you've probably gotten the feeling that societal norms for women don't include being enormous in any physical, mental, or spiritual sense. I never longed to be waifishly thin or anything, but for years and years and YEARS I felt awkward about my size, almost apologetic to the entire world for something that A) I never asked for and B) I have absolutely zero control over. It was only when I started to accept those things as being Righteously True that I began to understand that my body is perfect JUST AS IT IS, and that it can do many, many amazing and wonderful things- if I only ask it to.

For me, my Eureka moment came not long after I started weightlifting six years ago, at the age of 26. I had spent pretty much every waking moment of my life, from when I was first old enough to be aware of the world, feeling awkward about my size and being a total klutz because I refused to accept the way my body moved through space. I'm talking years and years of being picked last for sports teams, not even pursuing athletic activity for the fun of it because I felt that my body was so awkward, and feeling generally weird about moving around, period. Weightlifting was the first activity I had EVER done, EVER, where my build and my size were an automatic asset. I am SOLID, by default, my bones and sinews and muscles already prepared and ready to be put under load, eager to adapt to greater and greater challenges. Suddenly here was this thing that my body was good at! And that I liked! And that I kept getting better and better at!

I'm not saying y'all need to all run out and start weightlifting (although obviously I am a huge fan); point being is that in order to fully come to understand and appreciate Yourself, which in turn leads to greater happiness and self-confidence, which in turn leads to having a MUCH easier time not only in life in general but achieving your goals specifically, the point is you MUST find your own Eureka moment. You've gotta sit yourself down and have yourself a serious think about the notions and ideas that are floating around in your head which are not only holding you back but which are in direct contradiction to the actual material truths that are self evident in all aspects of your life. What I am NOT saying is that you must limit yourself to only certain goals and aspirations as dictated by your size or your abilities (because that is as much of a problem as pretending that you can be all things in all ways no matter what evidence there is to the contrary). What I AM encouraging you to do is re-frame the goals you have set for yourself so that they are in harmony with where you are now, and with the things that are true for your life TODAY.

Are you really short but have your eye set on playing Basketball? Then you have to accept that you're altitude-challenged and plan your training accordingly. Are you really tall and kinda gangly but really want to pack on lots of muscle? Then you have to utilize techniques both in your eating and your lifting that are specifically tailored to your body type. If you've ever run even halfway seriously, then you probably know that one of the WORST things that you can do in the long term when it comes to running is just pick whatever running shoe looks good. In order to get the most mileage (pun intended) out of your running it's imperative you go to a serious running store, get your stride analyzed, and pick a running shoe that works WITH your stride and your specific body morphology, lest you blow out a knee in the third week and never run again. Same with pretty much any other goal, fitness or otherwise, that you ever set for yourself- before you throw yourself in headfirst, you have to analyze where you are and what your inherent strengths and weaknesses might be so that you can work with them instead of against them.

By refusing to lie to yourself, and accepting things for as they are in reality instead of trying to pretend something's one way when it's really not, you're arming yourself with a powerful tool that you can use to shape your life in any way you could possibly imagine. Constantly denying the truth and trying to act as if everything's working out just fine is like throwing yourself a brick wall in the hopes that if you ignore the fact it's not moving at all, one day you'll knock it down. I'm telling you that if you stand back and re-assess, you'll realize that there's an unlocked door in that wall that you can just waltz on through, no hurling yourself against the masonry needed!

Sweet Potato Quinoa Patties with Rosemary

Need more ideas for tasty complex carbohydrate side dishes? TFN Training client, Katherine Day, is back at you with another scrumptious recipe for "potato pancakes" made with sweet potatoes and the protein grain of the gods, quinoa.

Here's Katherine's trainer, Dylan Smith, scarfing up a serving of these patties, along with a side dish of Katherine's Super Clean Quinoa. Yum!

Sweet Potato Quinoa Patties with Rosemary

Prep time: 20 minutes, Cook time: 15 minutes, Makes about a dozen patties

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups 1/2-inch cubed sweet potato (peeled if you don't like skins)

• 2 cups cooked quinoa

• 2/3 cup diced yellow onion

• 1 TBS well-chopped rosemary

• 2 TSP minced garlic

• 3/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

• 2 large eggs

• 1/2 cup grated parmesan

• 1/2 cup quinoa flour

• vegetable oil (for pan-frying patties)

Directions:

• Steam sweet potatoes until tender, then let cool for 10 minutes

• Prep your onion, rosemary and garlic while potatoes cook. Finely chop that onion

• In a large bowl, mash the potatoes with the backside of a fork until each cube is broken

• Stir in the quinoa, onion, rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper

• In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and then add parmesan

• Pour egg mixture over the potato mixture and stir to combine

• Stir in 1/2 cup quinoa flour and let mixture sit for 5 minutes

• Place a large skillet over medium heat and add 1-2 TBS oil, coat the pan

• Scoop 1/4 cup to 1/3 cup of the mixture into hands and form into a 2-inch patty, 1/2 inch thick. Add more quinoa flour if the mixture is not holding together well enough

• Place gently in the pan and cook for 5-6 minutes until golden brown and firm. Repeat with 2-3 more patties (if using a 10-12 inch pan). Avoid overcrowding the pan.

• Carefully flip to the other side with a spatula

• Cook for another 4-6 minutes. Reduce heat if they are browning too quickly

• Repeat until all mixture is used

• Drain patties on a paper towel and then enjoy!

Super Clean Quinoa

People with super lean physiques usually know their way around a kitchen. Proof? TFN Training client, Katherine Day, seen here with her trainer, Dylan Smith, is a whiz when it comes to making "clean" foods taste outstanding.

Read on for Katherine's recipe for a simple, fresh and healthy quinoa that will have you thinking springtime even in the coldest weather!

Super Clean Quinoa

For the salad:

• 4 cups cooked quinoa (any kind you like)

• 2 cups fresh baby spinach

• 1 cup chopped tomato (1 large)

• 1 cup chopped mini cucumber

• 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil

• 1/8 cup chopped fresh mint

• 1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion (or more, if you're into onions)

• salt and pepper to taste

For the dressing:

• 1 1/2 TBS fresh lemon juice

• 2 TBS olive oil

• salt and pepper

• *Add chopped chicken and feta, or flaked salmon filet for even more protein and some healthy fat

Swimsuit Edition

Ah yes, it's that time of year. The annual Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition has hit the newsstands and mailboxes of zillions of dudes (and some ladies) around the world. The other day, after catching a few seconds of a TV interview with one of this year's models, I started thinking about what these women's bodies look like to me now that I'm a fitness professional.

As a teenager, I flipped forlornly through contraband copies of the Swimsuit Edition (and the Victoria's Secret catalogs that seemed to arrive weekly), wondering how I could make my body look like those in the photos. Having previously mentioned here on the True-FN blog that I'm not especially endowed in the womanly curves department, I knew that I could at least "get skinny". And so I did.

Before long, I was undoubtedly skinny...but I wasn't healthy. I got skinny by eating very little amounts of food and doing lots of step aerobics, which mostly ate away at my muscle tissue. My dance teacher and a friend's party photographer both thought I looked great, but nobody else did. To be honest, neither did I. At 5'8" tall I recall weighing as little as 115 pounds. I was both thrilled and horrified the day I stepped out of the shower and could see all of my ribs in the mirror.

Fortunately, I'd learned enough about eating disorders in popular culture at the time to recognize the road I was on and I knew it was a bad one. I was able to shift my mindset and habits in time to regain balance. Many young women are not nearly as lucky.

But this isn't a blog post about disordered eating, which is a topic that deserves much more in-depth attention. It's a post about women's bodies and evolving aesthetics.

Today when I see a photo from the Swimsuit Edition, supposedly filled with images of the most supernatural beauties our culture recognizes, I'm unimpressed. What I see are not the figures of women who work hard at their health and wellness. I see women who are on the road to osteoporosis; women who are likely undernourished; women who do not look strong and capable. These women couldn't squat 100 pounds if their lives depended on it. The allure of these women's images plays on antiquated ideas of femininity like fragility and vulnerability...in other words, weakness.

The fashion industry has recently been under fire for promotion of severely underweight models and many in that community have taken some steps to protect themselves against the worst publicity. Swimsuit and lingerie models tend to carry slightly more bodyfat than runway fashion models (for a less gaunt and softer "sexier" appearance) but generally not any more muscle.

I realize that a lot of people find the bodies of the women in the pages of the Swimsuit Edition to be very attractive. But I challenge you to compare the following photos of well-known bikini models. Notice the dramatic physique differences between the Sports Illustrated models and the fitness models. All of these women project sex appeal, but nowadays I only admire the ones who look fit and strong - like they've worked hard for their bangin' bodies, both in sport and in the kitchen. That's admirable. An attractive physique, to me, does NOT mean thinness anymore. It means lean muscle and more than one area of the body featuring curves, if you know what I mean.

I'm curious, what do YOU think?

Here's Monica Brant (left) and new Sports Illustrated sensation, Chrissy Teigen. I think that these side-by-side pics say it all:

Jamie Eason employs a classic pin-up pose here, but she looks anything but powerless to me. A sculpted upper back, shoulders, arms, and glutes means she lifts weights...

...like doing these dumbbell rows:

Erin Stern, below, is an accomplished fitness athlete. She looks strong and healthy in both of these pics, whether posing or working out:

This next model might do some yoga, but her physique doesn't look like the result of any strength training. She's likely on her way to bone density disease in a few decades. If your body type is naturally (or unnaturally) very willowy, strength training should be EXTRA high on your priorities list:

Me? I'd rather not get stuck in a tree. Erin Stern, below, looks like she'd have no trouble climbing down by herself:

~Jenn

Jenn Stofferahn, Certified Personal Trainer, NPTI

Don't Count Your Calories

A terrible habit lurks among us all - one that destroys diets and impedes progress. It's a habit so vile that it distracts and foils even the most dedicated "lean eaters". It's....counting calories.

GASP!

That's right, counting calories can be detrimental to the pursuit of a lean physique. While the common Calories In / Calories Out calculus makes sense to a degree, it misses some very basic and important science. Furthermore, it can squeeze your psyche through the ringer and ruin your nutritional progress right out of the gate.

At first glance, counting calories seems logical. A calorie is a unit of energy (the amount of energy needed to heat 1 liter of water 1 degree Celsius, to be precise). We measure our energy expenditure in calories, and we measure the amount of energy contained in a food in calories. By this logic, if the amount of energy going out is higher than the amount of energy going in, we lose weight! But not so fast. Reality is a more complicated picture.

Calculating Your Needs: An Imperfect Science

The standard formula for figuring your daily caloric needs is based on an estimate of how much energy your body burns. The majority of the energy your body uses in a day is merely to keep you alive with baseline functions like pumping your heart and keeping your body temperature at a cozy level. The sum of these needs is known as your Basal Metabolic Rate, commonly abbreviated BMR. BMR is calculated solely as a function of bodyweight and gender. According to this calculation, these two guys (who each weigh the same but clearly one of them carries much more lean muscle instead of bodyfat) have the same Basal Metabolic Rate:

We also burn calories when we eat food. This is called the Thermic Effect of Food, and it is the amount of calories we need just to digest food and break it down into usable elements. Yes it's true, it does take some calories to burn calories.

Lastly, we burn quite a few calories through daily movement and exercise. Walking to the car, going to the gym, sprinting up a flight of stairs, they all require calories. This figure is known as your Activity Level.

In sum, this is the standard formula for figuring out how many calories you burn in a day: Total Metabolism = Basal Metabolic Rate + Thermic Effect of Food + Activity Level

Most online calculators use this formula, so if you've ever estimated how many calories you burn in a day, this is likely how you did it. But there is a major problem here - it gives you an estimate than can significantly miss the mark.

The only 100% sure, foolproof method to determine how many calories someone burns in a day is to set the person up in a laboratory room surrounded by water in the walls, ceiling and floors. The scientist then measures the temperature of the water at the beginning and end of the day to determine the difference. Practical, no? The workaround laboratory estimate involves laying perfectly still for an hour under this attractive plastic ballgown.

The equation is a reasonable alternative to these strict measurement techniques, but there are myriad variables for which it can't account. What if you gain a pound or two throughout the day, which is highly likely? What if you have an extra serving of vegetables? What if you take the stairs instead of the escalator? What if you forget your keys and have to take an extra 10 steps? How hydrated are you? All of these factors have to be quantified in order to know the exact number of calories you burn in a 24 hour period. We can never track this minutiae in any one day, let alone over long periods of time, so we really have no way of knowing how many calories we burn in a day. And all of our best guesses are exactly that: guesses.

Calculating Your Intake: Another Imperfect Science

Ok, we may not know what we burn, but surely we can calculate how many calories we eat, right? It says how many calories are in a food right on the packaging and on websites like Calorie King and My Fitness Pal. Well, not really. These labels are based on the average of a very specific quantity of food. What if your actual serving is over by a gram? 2 grams? What if you have a glass of water with your meal? It changes how many calories are needed to break down the food. What if the nutrition label is just wrong? It happens more than you think.

The problem here stems from a scientific study performed decades ago wherein researchers determined the energy quantity of foods by burning them to cinders and measuring the heat radiated. I don't know about you, but my digestive tract doesn't burn anything to a crisp.

The very idea of a calorie in food being a specifically measurable data point is perilous. Another major problem with the calories in / calories out concept altogether is that it doesn't consider the TYPE of nutrients you are consuming. Have another look at the two 190-lb dudes in the photo above. Sure, their Activity Levels are probably quite different and, therefore, the buffer guy's caloric needs are higher, but I would wager my nest egg that the TYPES of foods each guy is eating on a daily basis are way different. Protein, Carbs, and Fats are not processed the same way by a body, let alone EVERY body, and a host of other factors like fiber, sleep quality, hydration and electrolytes play major roles. To keep it simple, a 1,00-calorie meal of 10 ounces lean protein, a cup of complex carboyhydrates, a ton of veggies, and a big serving of healthy fats will NOT be metabolized the same way as an Olive Garden plate of fettucine alfredo with the same number of calories.

Make Choices Instead of Crunching Numbers

The margins for error in calculating your energy needs and your energy intake are significant. If your estimates of daily calories consumed are off by 200-300, AND your estimates of daily calories burned are also off by 200-300, you're going to drive yourself nuts trying to calculate your precise intake and match it to your exact needs.

Here's a much better idea: don't count calories! While a general estimate is good to know ("I need about 3,000 calories a day versus 6,000"), successful lean eaters think about the big things, like eating enough protein and vegetables and sticking to unprocessed carbs. Don't worry about the calories you take in, worry about making the best food choices. Don't worry about how many calories you "burn" in a workout, worry about pushing yourself harder than last time. Keep your eyes on the big picture and find yourself in a lean, strong and healthy body. That's what really counts.

~Elliott

One Word for Your New Year's Beginnings!

New Year's Resolutions are difficult. They start out so well, with lofty goals and aspirations, but usually by about the third week they're sidetracked by this thing called LIFE. Sprained ankles, strained schedules, unplanned catastrophes, and the like always seem to come along and shove you off of your carefully planned track. Not to mention how easy it is to start blaming yourself for not keeping up with your lofty expectations that began the morning of January 1st!

Instead of setting a long, complex, lofty "resolution" (or two, or three...) for myself at the beginning of a new year, I choose one word that resonates with the type of life I want to cultivate in the coming year. Of course, there are always goals both large and small that I have in mind for myself throughout the year, but forgoing a large Resolution in favor of a simple, easy to remember word means that I can meditate on that word a little bit every day, thus ingraining the habit represented by that word and setting myself up for success!

For example, my word for 2015 is "Patience"- I intend, for 2015, to remind myself daily to have patience in the processes of my life, large and small. Patience for my fitness journey, so that I don't rush ahead and risk injury, and to remind myself that things take time. Patience for my loved ones, some of whom are going through their own struggles, so that I might be here for them when they need me instead of barging into their lives and trying to "fix" things. And Patience while working towards the larger goals in my life, so that I can enjoy the day to day processes that are part of these large life goals without becoming frustrated at the timeline of realizing those goals (which can seem SO LONG sometimes!) Through cultivating Patience every day, and applying it towards the myriad of things that I want to accomplish, I can achieve my goals no matter what ups and downs the coming year might bring- and if, in the course of the year, some goals are set back more than others, well I can just remember to be Patient while things catch up!

Perhaps there's an intention you'd like to set in your life for this coming year- a small, quiet word that you can repeat to yourself several times a day that will grab your attention and bring it back to the present moment. Or a huge, bombastic, exciting word that will rev you up and motivate you daily while you are reaching for bigger and better things! Or maybe, for your New Year, you just need a simple, easy word to whisper to yourself in hard moments when you're just trying to get through the day. Whatever you choose, hold it close, repeat it often, and put it where you can see it every day- on a sticky note, written on your bathroom mirror, maybe a daily reminder on your phone, maybe even as an art project if that's how you can best cement your intent for the coming year.

From all of us at TFN Training, we wish you a very Happy New Year! And as always, if you need us, we're here to help you meet your goals in the New Year and beyond... and we're all happy to help you with whatever intent you set for yourself!

We Must, We Must, We Must Increase Our...Pecs?

As anyone who's seen me at the beach, the pool, in a dressing room, or in the buff knows, I'm not what you'd call "amply-endowed". As a teen and younger woman, I was thrilled to discover the random outlet mall B-cup brassiere that, due to factory or designer error, legitimately fit my modest needs. Otherwise, I cut the tags out of my 36As, occasionally added a little pillow stuffing to the linings, and rolled my eyes when curvier female relatives and family friends told me I'd be thankful one day for my no-hassle silhouette.

(vintage "falsies")

Well, I'm older now and I AM grateful. Plenty of my gal friends navigate life with more generous feminine proportions, and they all speak freely about the challenges therein. I've never once had to consider the integrity of my bra before dashing down an escalator to catch a Metro car.

While my body image has changed considerably since my days of bra-stuffing and tag-tearing, I can credit something else with my change in perspective too. Since I started heavy resistance training a few years ago, I've built much stronger and shapelier muscles throughout my body -- including the muscles of my chest. One could even say that I have a bit of cleavage for the first time in my life.

Okay, maybe "cleavage" is an exaggeration (Jane Russell I ain't). But I do now feature lovely rounded muscle contours where for years only skin and sternum used to be. My pectoralis major muscles -- the ones that underlie my breast tissue -- are much more developed than they were pre-weight training days. The difference is subtle but, to me, significant.

Why, oh, why didn't I figure this out sooner? Let's discuss.

Girls, Women, Muscle:

Even if she'd known about the promise of weight training for décolletage, I'm not sure that my 16-year-old self would have started bench pressing for bosoms. Teen girls of yesteryear almost universally equated barbells with highly-developed (and testosterone-enhanced) female bodybuilders. Exercise for young women at the time meant one of three things:

• Dance (ballet, tap, jazz)
• Step aerobics
• Organized sports

All three of these pursuits are great things and certainly leaps and feminist bounds beyond the fitness protocols of the earlier 20th Century. But for my generation growing up, physical strength and muscular development were not priorities.

Feminine icons of the day -- from Winona Ryder to (yikes) Kate Moss -- were waifish. Strong-willed, perhaps, but strong-bodied? No way. Crossfit was merely a twinkle in Greg Glassman's eye and weight lifting was something that steroid-pumping Communist countries did.

There have always been muscular women as part of a kitchy subculture (think circus Strongwomen, Venice Beach, and later -- the American Gladiators TV show), but the value of muscularity for women -- EVEN TODAY -- is still, well...weak. We can delve into the social psychological bedrock of this phenomenon another time, but for the moment let's instead look at what female muscularity really means...and how to obtain it.

Sexy Muscles and (Briefly) How We Get Them:

As anyone who's seen me sans clothing recently knows, I do not look like a testosterone-enhanced bodybuilder. I look strong and sexy. I have shapely shoulders, arresting arms, a proud chest, and a back with the symmetrical contours of a topographical map. And you'd better believe that when I stop waving at someone, my arms do too.

Such are the pleasures of womanhood with developed upper body musculature. Before I come across as an insufferable narcissist (is it too late?), I assure you that the aesthetics of my muscles are only a delightful bonus to the physical abilities I've cultivated through strength training. Carrying six full bags of groceries into the house in one trip by myself? Marvelous! Finally saying I can complete the old-school Presidential Fitness Test because I can do not zero but EIGHT pull-ups? Divine! Not worrying about osteoporosis? Can't beat that.

Building muscle is a topic for hundreds of thousands of blog posts across the interwebs, but the short and sweet formula is thus:

• Lift HEAVY weights, With Good Form, 3x Week, and Make It Hard Every Time

Your goal is to induce "hypertrophy" of your muscle fibers, which essentially means forcing the individual fibers that comprise each muscle to become thicker. It's all about your body -- a fascinating machine of awesomeness -- responding to stimuli and ADAPTING accordingly. My husband and brilliant trainer, Elliott, composed a blog post not long ago about the 5 Truths of Fitness (what actually works). Guess what? Nothing's changed, these truths apply today, yesterday, and tomorrow. There is a science to building a stronger, more capable, and sculpted body.

A Note About Thighs:

I think that a post about women and muscle must address the timeworn and, frankly, misplaced anxiety that many girls and women have about building "bulky" leg muscles. It is true that your quadriceps and hamstrings are some of the largest muscle groups in your body and that millions of women feel that their legs are ALREADY too big. There is some validity here. Most women, due to our hormonal profiles (compared to men's) do carry much more muscle mass in their lower bodies than they do in their upper bodies, even if they don't exercise at all. It's why a "skinny" teenage boy can probably do a bunch of pull-ups while a "skinny" teenage girl probably can't do a single one (and a "voluptuous" teenage girl would rather vanish from Earth than be seen trying).

The reality is that women who feel their thighs are too big are very likely carrying more bodyfat than they would like (NOT more muscle). Women are genetically programmed to store more bodyfat than men, and often more around the butt (hips) and thighs than men.

Furthermore, they probably have very little upper body muscle development. Little upper body muscle combined with high bodyfat percentage (stored predominantly in the hips/legs) may make many women feel "bottom heavy" (an atrocious but often used descriptor). This is why it's important for women who wish to achieve a fit-looking physique to build muscle everywhere and to eat for leanness. More on that here.

Some women fear building muscles in their legs because they don't want to outgrow their clothing. I say this from much experience: modern clothing is seldom designed for a fit physique. Most women's clothing is cut to conceal flaws and to literally compress bodyfat into casings (skinny jeans, anyone?). Adipose tissue (fancy word for bodyfat) is far less dense than muscle tissue, which means it is squishier and is more likely to benefit from compression wear like Spanx and the squeezing effects of tiny-thigh dimension skinny jeans. The muscular woman below probably puts on the same size jeans as the other woman, but who looks better naked? 

The kind of garbage that gets featured in women's "health and fitness" magazines perpetuates the fallacies of women's lower body musculature. A colleague of mine recently discovered a website encouraging women to achieve a "thigh gap" by shrinking both bodyfat AND leg muscle. Atrophy and decrepitude for all!

Instead, check out strength athlete, Kim Valentine, posting on Instagram with a before and after account of her own muscular transformation. Her leg circumference is no doubt bigger in the "after" photo, but look at the SHAPE.

No Ifs, Ands, or Butts:

Fortunately, the idea of a developed REAR END is actually IN fashion these days, which is good because your gluteal muscles are super important for posture, movement, and looking fabulous. The downside to the current tushy training fad is that the message to women is largely -- Muscular Butt Good, Muscular Legs Bad. Here's a link to something called the Brazilian Butt Lift Workout. DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT use this as a reference for legitimate exercise training, it's about a scientifically solid as astrology. The thing is, your legs and butt work together, especially when you're lifting heavy weights (vital for building muscle!). It's nearly impossible to isolate your glutes in exercise. While it can be done if you are very experienced, it's not a worthwhile pursuit for most. Muscular legs and muscular glutes are equally wonderful. If you minimize bodyfat, your muscular legs will SEEM smaller, and they'll look fantastic.

Get to It!

Building muscle isn't easy, but plenty of women are proof that it can be done, and done with fabulous results. The first and sometimes hardest step? You have to want it.

You Are Here.

Imagine, if you will, a great big "X" directly underneath you. That's your NOW.

In order for you to get from where you were in the past, to where you want to go in the future, you must pass through that X. There's no way around it. You can't avoid the X, or run away from it, or pretend it doesn't exist... because it's you, right now, just as you are. The sum of all of the choices and happenstance in your life, up to this moment, good and bad, wanted and unwanted.

It's so seductively easy to become obsessed with that X. To pore over the things that you don't like about where you are right now, and to constantly analyze and scrutinize all of the things that did or didn't happen in the past. Oh how you wish they had been different. If only you had started exercising ten years ago! If only you hadn't entered that race and broken your ankle! If you only hadn't dated that loser in college who didn't want you to be on a sports team! Your mind can entertain itself endlessly, running around in circles like a dog chasing its tail, thinking of all of the could-have, should-have, might-have-beens that would cause your X to be way off somewhere else instead of where it is now...under your feet.

But therein lies the rub. Here you are, at your X. Whether it's exactly where you want to be or far from where you wish you were, You Are Here.

Embrace your Here. See it not as something to fight against, a summation of all of the mistakes and missteps of your past, but as what it truly is - a point in time, infinite in its possibility, and most importantly: temporary. The X of your now is fleeting, constantly moving as time keeps rolling forward underneath you. You (and only you) have the power to move your X in whatever direction you want, whether becoming stronger, or faster, or leaner, or more agile, or whatever. Obsessing over where you are now prevents you from moving towards where you want to be. Accept today, look ahead, and take a step toward your next destination.

Your Goals: What They REALLY Mean

Another great American feastival is behind us, which means we can all pack up the leftovers, put away the tablecloths, and take a few minutes to think about the road ahead. So...are you on track with your fitness and nutrition goals?

That's probably not a kind question to ask the day after Thanksgiving, but today is as good a time as ever to cast things in a new light. Let's have a look at those Goals - and what they REALLY mean.

One of the most important things we do at TFN Training happens the first time any of us trainers meet with a new prospective client. We sit down together - trainer and client - and discuss that person's Goals in pursuing personal training. Understanding someone's goals is so Important (with a capital "I") to plotting a fitness and nutrition strategy. No one with sculpted abs past the age of 20 got there without setting a goal and then sticking to it (which is the hard part, but that's another story). Only there's a CATCH...

What Your Goals Really Mean

To be pursued effectively, fitness and nutrition goals have to be defined specifically - and scientifically. When the Goals conversation commences with new clients, most have a general idea in mind of what they would like to look like and how they would like to feel. But the steps necessary to get there are clouded by a popular fitness industry based on sensationalist marketing, and tips from well-meaning friends who have never studied the science. Let's take a look at the two goals I hear most often from new clients, and redefine them for action.

"I just want to be more Fit"

People almost universally use the term Fit to mean a capable, do-anything body. Scientifically, there are actually different components of Fitness, and varying degrees of each. It's fair to say that an ultra-marathoner is an extremely fit person, but so is an Olympic gymnast, a professional dancer, and an All-American sprinter. Could each do the others' sport with comparable results? No way. That's partly a product of practiced skill, but it's also how each athlete's body is specifically conditioned. In other words, it's how they each exercise.

In Fitness science, the "Principle of Specificity" reigns. It means that the more you train for a specific purpose, the better you will be at that specific thing, and sometimes to the detriment of other things. An athlete at the upper echelons of Iron Man competition spends 99% of her training time improving swimming/biking/jogging endurance. How do you think she would perform in a tug-of-war match with a woman about the same size who spends hours each week hoisting and carrying insolent toddlers? My money's on the mom.

There are 5 recognized Components of Fitness, in no particular order:

1. MUSCULAR STRENGTH (ex. How heavy a suitcase could you pick up if you only had to do it ONE time?)

2. MUSCULAR ENDURANCE (ex. How many stairs could you climb in a row carrying a suitcase half as heavy?)

3. FLEXIBILITY (ex. Could you fold yourself into that suitcase?)

4. CARDIOVASCULAR ENDURANCE (ex. How quickly could you run 5 miles? No suitcase)

5. BODY COMPOSITION (ex. Would you look smokin' hot wearing a bathing suit doing any of the above?)

I'll explore these in detail another time, but for most of us, Fitness means a body that exhibits ALL five of the components - ESPECIALLY Body Composition. There isn't really one sport dedicated to this kind of well-rounded Fitness. You might say that the Olympic Decathlon comes close. Crossfit claims to crown the Fittest man and woman alive each year through impressive displays on ESPN (mostly of Muscular Endurance and Body Composition).

But you don't need to do 100 handstand push-ups on ESPN to achieve stellar Fitness. The philosophy I stand behind, with all my experience in sports academia, athletic coaching, and personal training, is that Muscular Strength is THE most important quality to improve, BECAUSE it serves all the other ones. Remember how I said that the 5 Components above are listed in no particular order? Well...I fibbed. Here's how strength effects them all:

• Muscular Endurance is the amount of reps that a muscle can perform with a medium weight (think push-ups) before it has to take a break. The most important contributor to Muscular Endurance is Strength. Think of it like this: if you are stronger, doing reps with lighter weights becomes easier, and your Muscular Endurance goes up.

• Cardiovascular Endurance is the ability of the heart and lungs to provide oxygen to the muscles. This is also greatly limited by Strength for the same reason as Muscular Endurance. A strong 150-lb person will run a better marathon than a weak 150-lb person, because every single step is easier, because of Strength. When training for strength, the maximal force production of the muscles goes up, so that less than maximal contractions (lighter weights, cardio) become easier to do.

• Body Composition: strength training builds muscle, and muscle boosts metabolism, which means you use/burn more fat off your body 24 hours a day. The more muscle you have, the more calories the body burns, even while it is asleep. This is why men (who genetically carry more muscle mass than women, even if they don't strength train) can often eat more nachos and beer than women, with less body composition consequences. Lifting weights is the key to building fat-burning muscle for both men and women, and it needs to be challenging, or else it doesn't count. Going for a leisurely walk is relaxing, and a great way to spend a morning, but it does not build Strength the same way as lifting something heavy with the proper technique, repeatedly and progressively over time will.

• Flexibility: this may surprise you, but lifting weights can actually INCREASE your flexibility. Proper strength training takes your muscles through a full range of motion, which is what "flexibility" actually means, and also strengthens your muscles at end-range of motion, which is where injuries usually occur. With strength training, your range of motion at joints improves. Granted, specific mobility work like self-massage and stretching is great too, but stronger muscles at end-range means better flexibility.

Strength serves as the base for everything that the body can do and dictates what the body looks like. It's for this reason that the bulk of your training should be dedicated to this high-yield component if you're seeking "Fitness". Want to be Fit? Train for Strength.

"I'd Like to Lose Weight."

This is the most common goal that I hear at TFN Training. But here's where it gets tricky. "Losing weight", as a wished-for goal, does not usually mean, "Make my bodyweight go down". What most people mean by the statement is, "Make my body fat go down', and there is an important distinction. As long as your body fat goes down, your bodyweight can be high and you will still look darn good. I love when ESPN The Magazine comes out with the Bodies issue. It is a pictorial of top athletes (nude, but still safe for work), and they often list the bodyweights of the males and the females. They'll show a beautiful, lean, and athletic woman, and state plainly that she weighs 140-180lbs! If you are strength-training and building muscle, the number on your scale is nonsense. What the vast majority of men and women are looking for is a Body Composition change. A low body fat percentage of total bodyweight is what we work toward, not necessarily a lower scale number. For example, here is 5'10" Serena Williams 'tipping the scales' at around 180lbs, and hey...looking GOOD.

A huge, HUGE part of this Body Composition pursuit is about nutrition. Building muscle requires good nutrition, but the body fat that you carry around depends greatly on it too. So how to eat for a lean body? That's a big topic, but this is a quick picture of how to attack it. Make most of your meals look like this:

If most of your meals look like this, you'll be exhibiting a nice 6-pack to flex in the mirror. If meals only look like this occasionally, there will be a layer of body fat covering those strong abs. If meals never look like this, then your visible 6-pack is as elusive as a unicorn.

*****

And there it is. The two most common general goals become re-framed as scientific Components of Fitness. From there, the steps that lead to the changes sought are clear. Train for Strength, as the key to the whole enchilada of "Being Fit". And go easy on the actual enchiladas for "Losing Body Fat".

So fix yourself a leftovers plate of turkey and green beans, skip the extra pie, and go hit the weights.

~Elliott

Surviving the Holiday Food Frenzy - featuring guest blogger Dawn the Brawn!

We're excited to introduce a talented guest blogger this week. Our friend, client, and fellow fitness/nutrition enthusiast, "Dawn the Brawn", has some excellent tips for emerging on the other side of the holiday season no worse for the wear. Intrigued? Read on:

Hi everyone, it's Dawn the Brawn here, and hoo boy are we turning a corner into the most food frenzied time of year - the holiday season. It starts innocently enough nibbling Halloween candy, and soon accelerates through Thanksgiving, holiday parties, dinners, and New Years brunches that truthfully don't peter out until Daylight Savings Time starts again. Whether you celebrate religious holidays or secular ones, with huge gatherings or a chosen few, there are gobs and gobs of food everywhere you go. On top of that, all the holidays, bad weather, planned vacations, and parties are just waiting to utterly trash your gym routine. It's enough to turn the most seasoned superhero(ine), like Yours Truly, into a couch potato by the time the stockings come down from the attic. What can be done to resist this formidable foe? Are we all doomed to throw up our hands, call it a "winter bulk", and stick to wearing stretchy waistbands until the flowers bloom again?

NOPE! Just in time for Thanksgiving, I am here to give you some pointers for managing the Holiday Bonanza in tip-top form, mentally and physically.

DAWN THE BRAWN'S NO FAIL, CAN-DO GUIDE TO GETTING THROUGH THE HOLIDAY SEASON
1) Holidays and Vacations Happen. Plan Ahead!

You know who's coming. You've marked dates on the calendar. You've bought the plane tickets. You've dusted off the gravy boat. You've bought the turkey. You've planned where everyone sits, what everyone is eating, where everyone is going and when, so why not plan how you're going to deal with the disruption to your nutrition and training? You know Aunt Marge is gonna pout if you don't eat three helpings of Great Gram-Gram's Apple Pie, so decide right now how you're going to fend her off. (You have a gluten allergy. You'll take two and a half slices for leftovers. You feed two and a half slices to the family dogs).

You know that your friends are going to throw the biggest rager the world has ever seen for New Year's and they'll expect you to drink until you forget your own name, so decide right now how you're going to train around the Mother Of All Hangovers (Don't drink so much. Water between every drink. Eat a full meal before the boozefest. Ibuprofen.) You know there are going to be cookies in the break room at work from now until Easter, so decide right now how to keep your willpower and resist decision fatigue (Avoid the break room when you're tired or hungry or stressed. Ask around and figure out who the best bakers are, then work an amazing half-cookie into your nutrition plan. Too many half cookies? Freeze one for mid-July, IF AND ONLY IF you can resist the temptation to eat it at two in the morning next week.)

CARRY SNACKS: If I let myself get ravenous before a meal then I am much, much more likely to A) eat way too much and B) help myself to thirds on dessert. Apples and protein bars (Quest bars are my favorite) can always be found in my purse, or in my coat pocket, or in my glove compartment. Jerky can be a great choice as a transportable high-protein snack that will give your stomach something to gnaw on instead of its own lining. If you always have a good choice when you get peckish, you're less likely to say, "Screw it, I'm on vacation, let's pig out!"

DON'T BE A SLUG: Just because you're in another state for a week and don't know where the nearest gym is doesn't mean you can't find other ways to avoid merging with the couch leather. When Uncle Vernon starts his annual political rant and everyone reaches for their second piece of pie, grab your favorite cousin(s) and go take a walk around the neighborhood. Or round up the kids to play tag in the backyard. Even something like helping hang holiday decorations can be a great way to get moving for a while. It's not about trying to emulate your normal gym schedule when everything else in life is topsy-turvy for a week, it's about keeping your momentum going so that your normal schedule isn't a shock to your system afterward. Remember, a body in motion tends to stay in motion! Finally, if you're in town for Thanksgiving, chances are very good that your Personal Trainer* is doing business on Black Friday. Book an appointment and guarantee that you'll get a great workout.

*don't have a Personal Trainer? You should seriously consider contacting these people, you won't regret it!

2) Know Your Weaknesses - and Your Strengths

[photo: Evan-Amos}

WATCH OUT FOR KNOWN PITFALLS: I know darn well that I have a problem resisting "rare" food. If I am on vacation, or if it's Thanksgiving, or if I'm at the house of a friend I only see once a year and there's something special on the menu (an exotic dessert? I'm looking at you key lime pie/ aforementioned Great Gram-Gram's Apple Pie/ my best friend's tiramisu) I am going to eat SEVENTEEN HELPINGS BECAUSE I MIGHT NOT EVER EVER EAT IT AGAIN IN MY LIFE. It's pretty obvious that, in those cases, I am not eating because I am hungry or even particularly because I want to, I'm eating because I have an emotional connection to the food that's being served. In this case, knowing is half the battle.

SATISFY WITH THE GOOD STUFF FIRST: I may be vulnerable to those "rare foods", but I also know that I won't get crazy-eyed over them if I'm already physically satisfied. Good snack choices throughout the day and filling up on protein (lots of protein!) and veggies at mealtimes keep dessert temptations minimal, even emotionally loaded ones. If I'm already happily sated from turkey, heaps of roasted veggies, and reasonable portions of mashed sweet potatoes, a sliver of a few special treats top the meal off beautifully. It's a win-win: I get to enjoy some of these special foods AND I have stacked the deck so that I will be far less likely to eat until I can't move. 
[photo: blue sage]

GIVE YOURSELF AN ADVANTAGE: What if your family gathering consists of foods that you would never in a million years dream of having in your house? Well, prepare or purchase and bring along at least one healthy dish to share so that you can easily pass on the gravy-from-a-packet and potatoes-from-a-box. My pal Jenn told me that she always brings roasted brussels sprouts to her family's Thanksgiving, just to amp up the available veggies factor regardless of what's already on the table. See if you can get a glimpse at what's being served before you sit down. Worst case scenario? Revisit that neglected crudités tray between dinner and dessert and look to your healthy snack stash (Quest bars in pockets?) to satisfy. One caveat - go easy on the cheese in cheese trays. Cheese is a great source of protein but it ain't lean protein. Five pieces of veg for every one chunk of cheese is a good rule of thumb. Let someone else have the crackers.

3) You're There to Relax, So Relax Already

YOU'RE HUMAN: OK so you ate one (or two, or three...) more cookies than originally planned. You weren't able to hold off Aunt Marge and now you have eaten so much apple pie it's leaking out your ears. You succumbed to the spread of prepackaged, sodium-laden, high fructose corn syrup spiked delicacies and now you're slipping into a chemical food coma. SO WHAT? It's one day out of the year, it's one unintended cookie after months and months of smart meal planning, it's one week when you aren't hitting the gym. In the grand scheme of life, it's No Big Deal. Get back into your normal flow as soon as you can, and get on with being awesome!

ENJOY THE SPECIAL MOMENTS: Just because holidays revolve around the making and eating of food doesn't mean you have to make that the ONLY special element. Plan for fun events that have nothing to do with food. Organize a snowball fight, a hike, or a family Olympics. If you're artistic, plan a craft to do with the kids (and/or the adults). If your family is gregarious, bring along and suggest a parlor game like Apples to Apples, Pictionary, or (if your family is REALLY special) Cards Against Humanity. Suggest everyone go over to Grandma's house and decorate her Christmas tree. Go see the small-town holiday parade. Make new memories!

ABOVE ALL, REMEMBER THAT FOOD IS FUEL, NOT FRIEND: Eating can be an emotionally charged thing for many of us. It's hard, especially around the holidays, to remind yourself of this fact. Remember that while food might be a physical representation of the love and care that went into its preparation, it's not a literal substitute for the person who made it. Appreciate the unique flavors and textures of food that you only eat once a year, but focus more on your appreciation of the people who made that food, and acknowledge the reasons that they prepared the food for you: they want you to be fed, to enjoy yourself, and they want to celebrate the unity that comes with breaking bread with others.

So as we approach the eat-fest that is Thanksgiving, soon to be followed by the eat-fest that is DECEMBER, square your shoulders, hold your head high, nibble a cookie or two, and pass the veggies, please!

About the Author

Dawn the Brawn is a former total couch potato turned quasi-athlete currently on a five year gym bender that shows no sign of stopping. She has a background in heavy strength training and has set several USAPL VA state records. She is a firm believer in working on the mental and spiritual side of one's self alongside one's corporal form, and encourages others to find exercises that are sources of delight and enjoyment rather than drudgery and self-flagellation. Her favorite exercises include hill sprints, Kroc rows, and hot yoga.

Your Fitness Tipping Point

While I might be decades behind the popular book curve, I still find new things to read in my wife's eclectic reading collection. There's always something cool jammed behind a forgotten textbook or tome on the living room shelves. I recently palmed and devoured her copy of Malcolm Gladwell's book The Tipping Point, which explores how a singular action - small, yet crucial - can unleash an avalanche toward major change. And of course it got me thinking about exercise.

Exercise is a major part of my life - professionally, socially, and as a geek-out scientific hobby. My own workouts 4 days each week are a big priority for me. No matter what the week entails, I always find ways to get them in. Often it takes some time management acrobatics, but I'm rarely "not motivated" to exercise.

I recognize that for most people, however, even if they have the time, exercise is at best a chore...and an often procrastinated one. Everyone knows they should exercise. Yet 85% of American adults are essentially sedentary, meaning that beyond some moderate walking here and there, they spend their time at desks, on sofas, in cars or in bed. Almost everyone says that they'd like to add more physical activity to their lives. There are time management issues, of course, especially for busy parents and professionals. But some very busy people do prioritize fitness, and they have the health and physiques to show for it. So maybe there's something bigger that separates the movers from the not. What really stops most people from getting active?

I believe it boils down to one major obstacle: momentum. Here's why:

Overcoming the inertia of inactivity

If someone is sedentary (or close to it), the first few days and weeks of an exercise program are tough. The body and the brain are rapidly adapting to brand new stimuli as you feel new things with your body and you start to forge a new habit. Think of it as growing pains for your muscles and your mind. While quality exercise should ALWAYS be "hard" (in other words, challenging no matter what your current level of fitness), the first phase from inactivity to activity is the hardest, because there is both a hefty physical AND mental adjustment.

People who exercise regularly and consistently over a long term have already generated momentum and developed a habit. True habits, as we all know, are difficult to break. Most fit folk actually feel crummy when they don't exercise, because their hormones and muscles have adjusted to the cycle of physical exertion. It's hard to say exactly when it all clicked, but it did. Don't get me wrong, even professional athletes have days when they want to skip workouts, but by and large people who regularly exercise - and exercise intelligently (see below) - keep it up. Their bodies and their minds crave it. For these people, no matter what the logistical pressures of of their lives, exercise remains a priority.

So how do you persevere in the beginning long enough to "tip" over the hump and generate fitness momentum? How do you even take the first step? If visualizing your health and physique benefits down the road isn't quite enough, here are some tips:

1. Get to the location. This is #1 because it's critical. Whether your workout is in your basement, at a neighborhood gym, or at a personal training studio in town, GET THERE. Once on location, your mind and body are already primed to accomplish some work. It's especially challenging to really shift gears when your location is at your house (unless a personal trainer is coming to visit you), but get your clothes on, some music pumping, and you'll set the tone. If you commute to your exercise location, have your workout gear in your car or bag ahead of time.

2. Tell a friend. Share your workout goals with someone in your life and have that person help keep you accountable, whether a friend, a spouse, a child, a parent, a coworker. Ask that person if you can plan to check in each time you head to the gym (a quick text message should do it). There are cell phone apps for this now too, but someone personally invested in your progress goes a long way.

3. Zero in on a favorite element. If it's your cool new pair of shoes, your music playlist, or even a particular part of your planned workout (hurray for foam rolling!), focus on it. My wife told me that on rough motivation days in the past, she would apply a coat of red lipstick before walking into the gym. It was an instant mental boost and, with each passing glimpse in a mirror, a reminder of her fortitude.

4. Build in a healthy post-workout reward. Have a plan for your post-workout meal (including protein!), promise yourself a hot shower or bath. Periodically book yourself a therapeutic massage, which can even be scheduled for right after a workout.

5. Think an hour down the road. In about an hour from the time your workout begins, you'll be DONE! Guaranteed, you won't have regretted spending your hour exercising versus watching TV. Hindsight is 20/20, but foresight can be sharp too. Imagine yourself in an hour's time. Make that person proud.

6. Exercise with a friend - or better yet, a Personal Trainer! It may seem obvious, but a training partner - especially a knowledgeable professional Personal Trainer - is going to help you do ALL of the above and MORE. Keeping you accountable over time and getting you to the location in the first place are big parts of a Personal Trainer's job, in addition to keeping you motivated through workouts, crafting intelligent exercise programs for you, guiding your form and intensity, and helping you understand the "Why's" of what you're doing. Working with a trainer is a financial investment, but a smart and educated trainer is worth every penny.

Keep your momentum - Work that gets results

Building momentum through consistency is key for living an active lifestyle. But all exercise programs are not equal under the sun. For many who've "tipped the point" and have some great momentum going, they lose it a few months in because they aren't seeing or feeling the kinds of results they've imagined. That's why you not only have to workout, you have to workout well. Exercise selection, intensity, progression over time, and GOOD FORM are the chunky ingredients in an effective exercise stew. Everything else is bathwater. If you need guidance, come visit us TFN Training or let us help you find a top quality professional in your area.

Your Tipping Point

Once you tip over the hump and momentum is flowing, your body is going to be a willing partner in your efforts. Until then, your mind may need to lead the way. You may not realize precisely when you tip, but eventually you'll be a person for whom weekly workouts are no longer a question of "If", only precisely "When".

I tip my hat to you all and hope to see you soon.

Elliott

If You Only Take One Dietary Supplement...

...Make it Fish Oil.

Cruising the aisles of your neighborhood nutrition store can be mystifying. Online, the options for dietary supplements are endless. The sheer number of vitamins, minerals, herbs, combinations, and vaguely packaged "proprietary blends" may leave you wondering what it is you really need.

At TFN Training, we've built a strong argument for fish oil - a superb source of Omega-3 fatty acids - as your #1 supplement. If you only invest in one nutritional aid, make it fish oil.

A Brief Nutritional Run-Down:

To understand why fish oil is so valuable for your diet, let's look first at the nutritional basics.

Micronutrients: vitamins, minerals, water. They perform important functions in the body, but they do NOT provide energy. As such, they have no calories.

Macronutrients: protein, carbohydrates, fat. They also perform important functions in the body, and they DO provide energy. They each have calories associated per gram:

1. Protein - 4 kilocalories per gram

2. Carbohydrate - 4 kilocalories per gram

3. Fat - 9 kilocalories per gram

All of our foods have a combination of both macro and micronutrients. Your carrot is resplendent with Vitamin A, carbohydrates, and water. While some Americans do experience vitamin and mineral deficiencies, the general quality - and especially quantity - of food eaten by most in our country covers the basic amounts of micronutrients. But a profitable industry has blossomed selling supraphysiological mega-doses of micronutrient supplements, and it can be a confusing one to navigate. It's always smart to pump up the array of veggies in your diet, and it's often a good idea to bolster intake of some micronutrients at special times of life (pregnancy, recovering from illness or injury). But we believe that there is one outstanding supplement everyone should take every day, above and beyond food and water.

That supplement is fish oil.

Here's why:

Fish oil is rich in Omega-3 Fatty Acids, a macronutrient form of dietary fat essential to your metabolic processes (meaning everything that the body does). Omega-3's must be brought into your body through diet, the body can't generate them alone. And guess what? Unlike with the vitamin and mineral micronutrients, hardly anyone gets enough Omega-3's just through food. Even highly conscientious eaters need a helping hand to consume the amount of Omega-3's necessary for a thriving body.

A simple solution? Supplement daily with a high-quality fish oil.

La Beauté D'un Poisson:

Omega-3's are loaded with both physical and mental health benefits:

They lower our risk of cancer, heart disease, and hypertension

They make our skin healthier

They promote healthy joints and bones

They naturally reduce depression

They help torch body fat

Wait a minute - torching body fat? How can a FAT help the body burn FAT? Read on...

The Skinny On Fat:

A vital distinction here - dietary fat is NOT the same thing as subcutaneous fat (body fat). The former is an important macronutrient that the body MUST intake to function. The latter is the body's storage form of energy that hasn't been used. The fat in your salmon filet is NOT the same as the jiggle in your wiggle. In fact, the extra jiggle is more likely a product of too many carbohydrates in your diet. But more on that another time.

For about 2 decades, popular culture villified dietary fat. "Low-fat" (or the adorable "Lo-fat!") diets were all the rage. Because dietary fat is more calorically dense than the other macronutrients, too much dietary fat can quickly equate to too many calories. Low-fat diets tend to be low in calories by default. By and large, less calories consumed means less extra energy for the body to store as jiggle. BUT - and this is a big but - protein and fat have a lot of other functions in the body in addition to providing energy, while carbohydrates are pretty much purely for energy. Plus, more muscle on the body means that it uses more energy. To add muscle and other healthy tissue, you need plenty of protein in your diet AND healthy fats. Moreover, healthy fats (like Omega-3's) help your body use many of the vitamins in your food, and they keep your metabolism moving like a freight train. In short, fat does not make you fat. If consumed intelligently, it can make you leaner than ever.

Chew This Fat: Fish oil dosage

Fortunately, fish oil supplements are swallowed (not chewed). Liquid fish oil is the optimal way to get your daily dosage, since it is much denser in Omega-3's than pill form AND the high quality liquids tend not to produce fishy burp reflux. With a liquid form, you can kick-start your dosage for the first 6 weeks by taking 4 teaspoons (20 grams) per day. That's teaspoons, mind you, not tablespoons. After 6 weeks, 1 to 2 teaspoons is your maintenance dose. We recommend the Carlson brand as a high-quality and great tasting oil. It comes in lemon and orange flavors that are pleasant to take straight by the spoonful, or even tossed into a smoothie or drizzled over roasted veggies or a salad.

If you follow a vegetarian diet, algae supplementation is a fine alternative. The dosage for algae oil is much less than that of the recommended amount of fish oil. If you're taking algae oil, take 2 grams per day for the next 2 weeks. After that, cut the dosage down to 1 gram per day. We recommend Omega-3 DHA+EPA by DEVA.

Helpful suggestions:

* Take it with a meal

* Divide the dose 

* Take it at the same time each day. Program a pop-up phone reminder or use a sticky note to remind yourself.

Recommended brands:

* Fish oil: Carlsson's lemon or orange flavored liquid fish oil

* Algae oil: Omega-3 DHA+EPA by DEVA

Fish oil is safe for almost everyone. Please contact us at TFN Training if you're about to undergo an operation, are currently taking blood thinners, or suffer from hemophilia, and we can help guide you on Omega-3 supplementation.

If you have any questions about fish oil, Omega-3's, or anything else nutrition or fitness related, our team is just an email or phone call away! One of our co-founders, Kim Limon, holds a top nutrition certification from Precision Nutrition and can help you with detailed nutrition guidance for any of your goals.

Thanks for reading - and Take your fish oil!

Jenn Stofferahn, Certified Personal Trainer, TFN Training

jenn@tfntraining.com, 703-402-1144

Don't Forget to Pack! (Your Shoulders, That Is)

You wouldn't leave town without packing your toothbrush, your change of underwear, and your smart phone, right? Here's another essential for your packing list: your shoulders.

Don't worry about the dimensions of your suitcase. Packing your shoulders means using the muscles of your upper back and shoulders to secure your arms before you use them. It involves activating your "Rotator Cuff", an oft misunderstood and ignored body part. Baseball pitchers and quarterbacks think about their Rotator Cuffs, and you should too.

Packing your shoulders is vital for safe movement, ESPECIALLY important before you plan to push, pull, lift, shove, stir, carry or hold anything that requires some strenuous effort. Carrying your grocery bags into the house? Pack your shoulders. Whisking some eggs for brunch? Pack your shoulders. Putting your luggage into the overhead compartment? Pack your shoulders. Cuddling your baby? Pack your shoulders. Bench pressing, deadlifting, bicep curling, or doing jumping jacks? You'd better believe you should pack your shoulders!

In short, no matter your fitness goals, learn how to do this.

Some Science:

Whenever you exert force through your arm -- whether to move it and/or to move something with it -- it's a darn good idea to have your shoulder in a "packed" position. Your upper arm bone, the humerus, meets up with your shoulder as part of a very flexible ball-and-socket joint. Think of all the directions you can move your arm at the shoulder, compared to say, all the directions you can move your leg at the knee. Your shoulder has a HUGE range of motion, which means that it's one of the most vulnerable joints in your body.

If you DO exert force through your arm WITHOUT first engaging the muscles of your upper back to secure the head of the humerus bone inside the joint, your arm is unstable. While instability does not guarantee injury, it makes it much more probable. Bad shoulder position in life risks all manner of acute (meaning "of the moment" -- like, Ouch, I just yoinked my shoulder!) and chronic (meaning "ugh, my shoulder always hurts) injuries. Most people wind up at a doctor's office, where they're prescribed pain meds and rest, and then they go right back to their bad shoulder habits...a vicious cycle.

Again, while it's possible to go through life with your shoulders in a bad position and remain injury-free, it's unlikely, and it's highly unlikely that you'll get very far in a resistance training program. And for you runners out there, guess what? Packing your shoulders is vital too. Ever hear of "Runner's Shoulder"?

Any personal trainer who knows her stuff will have you work on packing your shoulders at your very first session. It's bread and butter body awareness and it's not possible to safely strengthen your body if your shoulders are always in a cruddy position.

Squeeze It, Baby:

So what exactly does a "packed shoulder" look like? What does it feel like?

Take a second, whether you're sitting down or standing up, and try this brief exercise. Sit or stand with your arms by your sides. Close your eyes and focus on squeezing your shoulder blades together behind you. Hold the squeeze there for 5 seconds. Next, without letting go of that squeeze, pretend that someone has tucked a rolled up newspaper under each of your armpits and you have to hold onto them. THAT, my friend, is a packed shoulder position. We like the term "packed" because it implies tension (the good kind of tension). Think sardines packed in oil, or commuters packed into a train. It takes effort to pack your shoulders, but it's worth it.

[Left photos: shoulders UNpacked; Right photos: shoulders packed]

Another experiment -- stand or sit with your arm by your side in a totally relaxed state and raise your right arm up in front of you 90 degrees, elbow straight. Now take your left hand and try to pull your right arm forward. You can jostle it, right? Okay, now start the exercise over but this time pack that right shoulder before you raise it. NOW try to pull your right arm forward using your left hand. Can't do it, can you? That's because you've secured (packed) the head of your humerus bone using the muscles of your upper back, especially your rotator cuff.

What's a Rotator Cuff Anyway?

Yes, more science! The muscles that you're activating when you pack your shoulders are muscles that are too often waaaaaay underutilized. In most people, they're weak, mostly because folks don't consciously use them. While there are other upper back muscles at play in shoulder packing, the most important ones are the four muscles of your Rotator Cuff. The drawing below shows the back of someone's left shoulder blade on the left, and the front of his chest on the right. You can see the rotator cuff muscles through the spooky transparent ribcage. While one of these four muscles is actually responsible for pushing your shoulder FORWARD, all four of them play roles securing your shoulder in a packed position. That sensation of squeezing your shoulders together in the back and then pulling them downward is what you want to practice (remember the rolled up newspapers?).

These Rotator Cuff muscles -- Supraspinatus, Infraspinatus, Teres Minor, and Subscapularis -- are small and not capable of tremendous force production. Compared to the muscles of the chest, which basically do the opposite actions, they are puny, even on bodybuilders! That's why everyday life (or resistance training that is not guided by a qualified trainer) that doesn't take shoulder packing into account results in tight chest muscles, and overly stretched, weak upper back muscles. Which leads me to another pressing point...

A Strong Upper Back is an Upright Upper Back:

Still not convinced that shoulder packing is necessary? Perhaps you've progressed through life so far and never given this one iota of thought. I hear you. Let's address the role of shoulder packing when it comes to your posture.

When the muscles of your upper back and rotator cuffs are weak, they are guaranteed to be imbalanced counterparts to your chest. In fact, most people have radically lopsided strength between the front of the upper torso and the back of it. This is true even for most people who "lift weights" in the gym! It's no coincidence that the muscles someone sees in the mirror are the ones that get the most attention.

Whether you strength train or not, your pecs and your front shoulders (anterior deltoids) get used a lot in life, just by default. In most people, they are chronically tight, and they pull the upper spine forward into an exaggerated curve. If your upper back muscles are not strong enough to counteract this constant rounding, you develop a common postural woe called kyphotic spine. "Postural Kyphosis" is rampant among the young, the old, and everyone between. It's your classic slouched position and jutted forward neck that, let's face it, looks BAD and is also bad for you. 

[notice that the "youngest" version of the woman isn't packing her shoulders...over time, an exaggerated kyphotic spine develops]

There are varying degrees of kyphotic spine, but if you glance around the grocery store, metro car, or shopping mall tomorrow and survey your fellow humans, you'll notice it happening at least slightly to everyone. The person who DOESN'T round her shoulders and upper back will stand out. She looks confident, poised, and she "carries herself well". The man who walks with an upright upper back looks tall, strong, and youthful. Why are people with great posture so striking? Because they are rare.

People of every age exhibit postural kyphosis. But a slouching teenager can more easily right his posture. As you age, decades of postural kyphosis contribute to loss of height, and that rounded upper back seems to feel more permanent. Bone density and other soft tissue quality play roles as well, but so much of height loss and the dreaded "dowager's hump" can be prevented and even counteracted. The great news is that strengthening your upper back starts with one simple exercise. You guessed it -- Packing your shoulders. Packing your shoulders is a key portion of your proper posture puzzle. Say that 5 times fast and you'll never forget. The more you consciously do this, the stronger your upper back will become, making you more capable, less injury-prone, and (let's be real with each other) nicer to look at!

Women, Their Shoulders, and Their Purses:

Lastly, a special note for women about purses and pocketbooks. In order for your purse strap to rest on your shoulder and not fall right off, there has to be a divot where it can hang out. When a woman's shoulder is in a pushed-forward and upward position (in other words, definitely NOT packed), a perfect divot is available for her purse strap. Even if the purse isn't heavy, merely holding it there is an act of treason against your body. Grab your purse right now and try to rest it on your shoulder in your usual position. Now pack your shoulder. Your purse doesn't like that, does it? For a healthier shoulder position whilst toting your cute bag, pack your shoulder, and then try resting your purse in the crook of your bent elbow or carry it by your side like a suitcase. It's convenient to hold your bag in the usual hands-free fashion, but it's murder on your shoulder.

Just Ask!

Thanks for taking some time with me to learn about packing your shoulders. I hope you'll give it a shot. If you can't quite get the hang of it or have more questions, please contact me or any of my colleagues at TFN Training for some tailored guidance. It's our mission to help you live a better life, moving through the world with strength and confidence. There's no better place to begin than packing your shoulders.

Jenn Stofferahn, Certified Personal Trainer, TFN Training

jenn@tfntraining.com, 703-402-1144

About the author:

A trained dancer, runner, and swimmer, Jenn Stofferahn discovered weight lifting in her 30s -- and with it, the physique and athleticism she'd been seeking. Now she shares these tools with others as a Certified Personal Trainer at TFN Training in McLean. Jenn graduated from Carnegie Mellon University and spent over 12 years working closely with passionate people as a nonprofit fundraiser. Along the way, she was introduced to heavy resistance training and conditioning by the top-notch personal trainers who founded TFN Training. It didn't take long for Jenn to develop lean muscle, strength and stability, while enhancing the flexibility and posture she cultivated as a dancer. Jenn has since attended the National Personal Training Institute, a 600-hour classroom diploma and unparalleled certification that focuses on anatomy, movement mechanics, fitness programming for strength, endurance, muscular development and flexibility, and the chemistry of nutrition.

Jenn is a competitive "raw" powerlifter in the drug-free USA Powerlifting Federation. She also still dances and is a longtime blues and rock musician. As a personal trainer, Jenn specializes in teaching women of all ages to use resistance training to safely build shapely muscle, enhance neuromuscular coordination (make muscles smarter), strengthen the heart and lungs, and reduce body fat. Jenn lives in Northern Virginia with her genius husband and colleague, Elliott, and their awesome pets.

Jenn's Fitness Philosophy:

Everyone should resistance train with things that feel heavy. Here's why: Your body responds to stimulus, so if you give your muscles, bones, organs and brain reasons to be stronger, they will be. If you don't, your body will automatically take the easy path and go downhill from there. We live in a world now that doesn't demand much of us physically, so we have to exercise intelligently to build the muscle we're meant to have. And muscle is great! It's very useful (think lawn mowing and grocery bag hauling), it looks good -- with or without clothing on top, and strong muscles mean strong bones too. Lifting weights is perfect for everybody because it's scalable to your individual starting point. Work with me at any age and you WILL have the best body of your lifetime.

Fitness - 5 Truths About What Actually Works

Everyone knows that exercise is good for you. Here's the rub - you have to do it right to get real results and major benefits. What do I mean by "right"? I mean that there's a huge difference between the results you achieve from exercise programs designed and guided by scientists of movement and your outcomes from logging hours on the elliptical machine.

Why? I'll sum it in five hard-and-fast, unquestionable truths about what REALLY works...

Truth #1:
Exercise is not magic, it is science

The human body is an amazing machine. It actually adapts to the activities that it is forced to undergo. Imagine if your car grew monster truck wheels from driving on dirt roads. When we lift things that are heavy, our bodies change to become stronger. When we run hard, our bodies change to become faster. It's impossible to request these changes politely. Our bodies adapt only when they MUST. That means in order to see your abs, you have to live a lifestyle that requires you to have strong abs and minimal bodyfat. Sound tough? The good news is that because this process is scientific, we are guaranteed to win 1,000 times out of 1,000 if we provide the right inputs. Exercise is not magic, it is science. Our species has calculated the mass of Jupiter, among other feats, and scientists of the body are darn good at helping you change your body. A Good Program + Effort + Consistency = Progress. GUARANTEED.

Truth #2:
Training needs to be hard. Always.

This is one of the most commonly misunderstood (and exploited) truths about fitness. Exercise is not cumulative, it is dose dependent. I'll explain (the below is in no way an endorsement of ritualistic sunbathing, however!):

Say I want to get a suntan. I decide to sit outside for 30 minutes a day for 15 minutes on each side in pursuit of said suntan. I do this every day and at the end of one week, I have a golden glow to my skin. It looks great, and so I decide to continue to deepen my tan. I do my 30 minutes a day for 6 months. What color is my skin at the end of 6 months?

The correct answer is THE SAME COLOR IT WAS AFTER ONE WEEK. What? But I've been doing it for 6 months? How does this make sense? It all comes down to adaptation. When we do something stressful, it hurts our bodies. Some stresses are not good for us and some are. In the tanning example, the sun cooks my skin. My body responds to this stress by creating an adaptation to avoid any further stress. This is why my skin gets darker. After my one week of tanning, my skin has adapted to 30 minutes of stress from the sun. If I want my skin to become darker, I need to stay outside longer. If I continue my 30 minute dose, I will stay the same color forever, because my body has already made the adaptation.

What does this have to do with exercise? In order to improve our bodies we must improve what we do with them. In order to improve our fitness we must do more than we did last time. That means that an exercise should always be hard. Always. If it is not hard, then that means you are not stressing (the good kind of stress!) your body in order to sufficiently cause an adaptation. Your body does not care if you want sexy abs, it merely responds to the stimulus you provide. Gives new meaning to the phrase "I'm SO stressed out!", doesn't it?

Truth #3:
Lift heavy weights

Everyone must lift heavy weights. Everyone. Your body does not turn on an entire muscle unless it must. If I pick up a pencil, my body will turn on the minimum number of muscle fibers to get the job done. In order to turn on more fibers, I must lift something that REQUIRES my body to turn on more muscle, like say, a really heavy pencil. If a muscle fiber does not squeeze then it is not stressed and it does not adapt. In order to stress maximum numbers of muscle fibers, we have to lift heavy weights. Now that term "heavy" is relative. Heavy for your parents and grandparents may not be heavy for you. But in order to stimulate adaptation it must be heavy enough to cause a stress. That means it has to be hard (remember Truth #2?). If you are doing a work set of 10 in the gym, it should be with a weight you couldn't do for 12 if your life depended on it. This not only strengthens the muscle, but the bones as well (another reason why grandma needs to lift), in addition to speeding the metabolism even after exercise is over. Lifting light weights gets you bupkis.

Sidenote for the ladies: Lifting weights will not get you big. I bet my career on it. The hormone that has the most to do with muscle building is testosterone, and you simply don't have enough of it to become "manly". The average man has 15 to 20 times more testosterone naturally than the average woman. The females who look like men are injecting testosterone. Don't inject testosterone, lift weights...look great in a bikini.

Truth #4:
Don't use machines. Seriously.

All human movements involve two components: strength and stability. If we can't do something like pick up a child or bend down and touch our toes, that means we are lacking one or both of these components. "Free weights" like barbells and dumbbells require both, the same way that moving does in the real world. Machines keep us in a specific guided path, and thus eliminate the need to stabilize. That takes the stabilizing muscles out of the equation and they don't develop. Now I don't know about you, but spending lots of time and effort getting better at things I will never do again doesn't sound smart. Machines were popularized at gyms decades ago because they require minimal supervision (which is much cheaper for a gym owner). Using free weights - with expert supervision - is what will get you to your goals. For example, the 5 best exercises ever - Squat, Bench Press, Deadlift, Overhead Press, Pull Up - are done without machines and are scalable in difficulty for everyone. If you work with a trainer and these exercises don't sound familiar to you, come see us at TFN Training as soon as possible!

Truth #5:
You can't outwork bad nutrition.

We are constantly told about calories in versus calories out. According to this logic, if we burn it off, we can eat whatever we want, right? No. Foods that are high in carbohydrates and fat, especially if they're processed foods, not only increase the 'energy in' portion of the equation, but also wreak havoc on our metabolic processes. Here is an easy way to think about it. The number of calories we eat dictates our body weight. The kind of calories we eat dictates what we look like at that body weight. Every single meal we have from now until death should include a complete protein, and a vegetable. In terms of how we look and feel, nutrition is more important than exercise, and it really isn't even that close of a competition. If you want to look fantastic, it all starts with what's on your plate. Optimize your work in the gym with smart decisions in the kitchen.

The Truth Will Set You Free
Exercise is not easy. It's hard and it should be - because it has to be. But working with someone who cares about your goals AND understands the science behind getting you the most out of every cent and second you invest makes it a lot easier.

Elliott White, Certified Personal Trainer, True Fitness and Nutrition

elliott@tfntraining.com, 571-265-3685

About the author:

Elliott White has had a passion for fitness since growing up as an athlete in Northern Virginia. First a Strength Coach at the collegiate level with James Madison University, he went on to help create the Strength and Conditioning Department at the University of South Alabama. Elliott then trained athletes in the Toronto Blue Jays organization before returning to Northern Virginia as the Personal Training Director for Fitness First in Tysons Corner. Elliott has been working independently in McLean for the past three years, joining forces with Kim to launch True Fitness and Nutrition in 2013. Elliott lives in Falls Church with his beautiful wife Jenn, dog Buffy, and two pet rabbits, LaFeet and Athena. He loves lifting weights, reading books, and lifting weights.

Philosophy
I've been in this business for a long time, and every body I come across moves a little bit differently. However the basic principles of fitness and science apply to every one of us. There is a right way to move and maximize performance and minimize injuries. There is a scientific way to progress in strength and body composition. An effective transformation requires three things: an effective program, effort, and consistency. My job is to provide the program. When it is combined with the effort and consistency of my clients, it works 1,000 times out of 1,000. I'd love to show you.

Welcome to the TFN blog space!

Greetings, all who seek the TRUTH about health and fitness!

We're excited here at TFN to introduce our blog, soon to be filled with great information about training, nutrition, movement, recovery, and much more, all from some of the best fitness pros in the area. Check back frequently, and follow us on social media, to see what's new at TFN.

Find your strength.