Fit For Life: Happy Spring – Panic Time!

Saturday, May 09, 2015

Matt Espeut, GoLocalWorcester Health +Lifestyle Contributor

Its here! That time of year, the time the birds are up early chirping, the sun is up and its lighter earlier, the smell of that fresh spring air, and the time we wear less clothing and show more of out bodies when we leave the house. Thats all well and good, and we should all be excited about it, unless you are not in the condition you wanted to be in this time of year. Now, panic sets in.

The weather is hitting the seventies, and your waistline is still hitting below your belt, the sun is up earlier, and your butt is sagging lower, and when you wave goodbye to someone, your arm is still jiggling after they have driven away. What should I do, you may ask. Is it too late?

Ideally, I do not like to prescribe quick fixes, I believe health and fitness should be part of your everyday lifestyle, and we should be preparing for this season all year long, not just a couple months or weeks before it arrives, but I have a few things you can do to make things happen a little faster, but you need to do these things without interruption, without missing days, and without cheating at all.

It sounds tough, and it is, but you put yourself in this position, so don’t get mad at me for telling you everything you need to do to get out of it. No ifs, ands, or buts - you need to do it this way or it won’t work, and your mindset needs to be all-in, 100%. So here it goes.

HIIT training, or High Intensity Interval Training.

You will not get the results you are looking for in a short amount of time if you just jog, walk, or stroll around on your bicycle on the bike path. You need to crank up your heart rate for brief periods of time - rest, repeat, and complete this format for bouts of 30 minutes at a time. You need to do this frequently - 4-5 times per week. Frequency, and consistency will get you much faster results than working out for 1 hour periods of time once or twice a week.

By doing this you are elevating your metabolic rate, and burning body fat much faster than conventional long bouts of cardiovascular exercise. You are also preserving muscle mass, unlike longer duration/less intense exercise, which will eventually cause a catabolic or muscle wasting effect due to the long periods of movement without replenishing glycogen stores in your muscles. The key to getting fit is to build muscle, and burn body fat. When you exercise too long, the opposite happens. Just look at long distance runners, compared to short distance sprinters. Sprinters are muscular and aesthetically pleasing to look at, while long distance runners have some muscle in their legs, but lack muscle elsewhere. They actually look like they are starving, thin, and frail.

Resistance training is a must for building muscle. HIIT will burn fat, and preserve muscle, but it takes weight to build muscle. You do not need to lift weights so heavy that you throw your back out, or turn blue in the face, but you need resistance that challenges you in order to build muscle. No, ladies, you won’t get big lifting weights, just lean, mean, and toned. There is a very small population of women who do have the capacity to grow big muscles, but a majority of women carry too much estrogen - the hormone that makes you female - as opposed to testosterone, the dominant hormone found in males. Its all about body mass index, you want to increase the percentage of your body thats made up of muscle, and decrease the amount of fat you are storing.

Lifting weights will enable you to build lean tissue, which in turn raises your metabolism, and helps you burn fat along the way. Muscle is a more active tissue which will burn more calories at rest than fat tissue will, so resistance training will build muscle that burns calories faster, and your HIIT training will get your heart rate up so you torch more calories per minute. Thats a double attack on body fat, and a proven way to build muscle.

I run a program at Providence Fit Body Bootcamp that does all of the above in 30 minutes. We combine strength training, with high intensity metabolic conditioning for the fastest possible way to achieve your fat-loss and fitness goals, in just 4 to 5 thirty-minute sessions per week, and you’re guaranteed to see results.

Nutrition. The last, and most important component to reaching your summertime goal is in your nutrition plan. At this point in time with such a short timeframe to accomplish your goal, this part needs to be flawless, and you can’t deviate from it - at all! This means no alcohol, bread, processed junk food, or dairy, and a very limited amount of fruit, until you reach your goal.

If you do not do all of what I am telling you, you will NOT accomplish your goal. It has to be all or nothing. No moderation, no cheat meals, no “just a bite” of anything that’s not on your nutrition plan. If you do, it will bring progress to a halt, even push you back further, and your summer physique will not get there.

To get lean and tight, you need to consume something nutritious every three hours. These small meals need to consist of a perfect balance of protein, fat, vegetables, and minimum amounts of fibrous/low glycemic carbohydrates, such as beans, and sweet potatoes. Some examples are: two eggs, kale, olive oil, and 1/2 sweet potato, or grilled chicken breast with 1/2 cup of rice, and a salad, or steamed veggies. Your meals do not have to be bland and tasteless, just extra clean and full of nutrition.

It might be vanity for the summer that will motivate you – or your career might be at stake if you are modeling or in the fashion industry. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but if you want abs, or to show some arm definition in that sleeveless dress, this is what its going to take. If you need help and accountability, you can call me and I will keep you focused and give you direction, and all the tools you need to accomplish your goals. Keep that image of what you are working towards in your mind, and keep moving toward it – pretty soon it won’t be just an image – it will be YOU.

Matt Espeut, GoLocal's Health & Lifestyle Contributor has been a personal trainer and health & fitnesss consultant for over 25 years. He is the owner of Fitness Profiles, a one on one, and small group personal training company, as well as Providence Fit Body Boot Camp, located at 1284 North Main St., on the Providence/Pawtucket line. You can reach Matt at (401) 453-3200; on Facebook at "Matt Espeut", and on Twitter at @MattEspeut. "We’re all in this life together – let’s make it a healthy one!"

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Fit For Life: Happy Spring – Panic Time!

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