Great knockout!!

Lol! 

Benefits of The Stair Master

Jumping on new equipment at the gym can be terrifying. So scary that many of us don’t even try. I’ve personally seen things at the gym and had to look at the picture example exercises on it for a solid 5 minutes just to figure out where to even start. The stairmaster and I have a bond I'm on that thing for 25-45 minutes everyday sweating more that I even knew was possible, toning my legs, building my stamina and working on my gluteus (Problem Area for most) 

Stair climbing benefits:

1. WEIGHT LOSS:

- Stair climbing uses the largest muscles in your body to continuously carry your own body weight up throughout the entire workout which means more calories burned!

2. TONES LOWER BODY

- This was something I found to be especially true after continuously using the stair master. With every step you take for 20-30 minutes you are engaging your calves, glutes, quads, and hamstrings to burn fat and build lean muscle mass.

3. STRONG CORE

- After a while of having steps spitting out at you it’s easy to want to fold over and rest your upper body on the machine, BUT if you remain upright and activate your core you also train all those core muscles while training your lower body!

4. EASY ON YOUR JOINTS

- The step after step motion is great because it’s a hard workout but it is not hard on your joints. Regardless of how slowly or how quickly the stairs are moving you are still getting in a very beneficial workout. Compared to the treadmill which is much more impact on your body and doesn’t offer the same benefits at a slower pace.

5. EFFICIENT:

- If you are going to work out you definitely want to make it worth your while. The stairs allow you to accomplish cardio, toning, and muscle building all at once!

Try it out and give me a shout on Facebook www.facebook.com/iAmCjCuttsFitness

Benefits of Tuna

Tuna OH HOW I LOVE THEE!!

Tuna is one of my favorite protein based foods. I choose to eat more fish than chicken and red meat. Tuna is PACKED with protein as well as a ton of essential vitamins and minerals your body needs. Tuna also contains omega-3s which can help prevent heart issues and provide our body with anti-inflammatories.

Bad Carbs vs. Good Carbs

I think most of us have heard the terms ‘good carbs’ and ‘bad carbs’ before, but do we actually know what they mean. To make it as simple as possible, ‘Good Carbs’ come from foods that also have a good source of fiber. For example, fruit, vegetables, whole grains, beans, etc. ‘Bad Carbs’ come from foods with little to no fiber content, such as white bread, white rice, etc. Fiber allows the body to slowly digest the carbs that we consume which leads to more stable blood sugar. If we eat food high in carbs and low in fiber, we quickly digest the carbs which then causes spikes in our blood pressure.

One other major thing to understand about good carbs and bad carbs is the composition of the carbs themselves. When carbs are digested, they are broken down into glucose (sugar) which the body needs for energy. During digestion, the body will break down any carb it is given into glucose; however, because of the fiber and other nutritional value with good carbs, the body is taking in more than just glucose. With bad carbs, the body is only quickly converting the carbs to glucose with no other vitamins or minerals to digest; therefore the calories being consumed can be considered ’empty’ calories and not beneficial.

The moral of the story is:
1. Stay away from foods high in carbs, but low in fiber.
2. It is healthy to eat ‘good carbs’ (aka. foods with vitamins, minerals, and fiber)

I hope this article helped. If you have any comments, questions, concerns, or ideas for other blog post, email me at iamcjcutts@gmail.com 

Core & Back Workout

This is a workout I did the other day. I was pleased with how well it worked and how efficient it was. It did not take too much time, but I definitely felt a great pump and was sore all over the next day. Try it out and let me know what you think.

Warmup:
30 minutes of moderate intensity cardio.

Working Sets:

1. Superset 1: 4 rounds

• 3 Drop sets of seated rows. 10 reps each. (10 reps at heavy, medium, then light weight)
• 10 raised shoulder push-ups
• 45 second hollow hold
• 1 minute rest

2. 50 reps of Lsit pull-ups
(10 sets of 5 with a 30 second rest)

3. Superset 2: 3 rounds

• 15 reps of rear delt flyes
• 1 minute side plank on each side

4. 5 sets of farmer carries

5. 10 handstands until failure

6. Stretch

TIPS:
1. For my moderate intensity cardio, I decided to walk at 4.0 speed on a 7.5% incline on the treadmill for 30 minutes. This burned a little over 300 calories.
2. When I say “3 Drop sets of seated rows. 10 reps each,” start with a heavier weight and do 10 reps of seated rows. Immediately after, lower the weight and do another 10 reps, and then lower it one more time and do another 10 reps. You will do 30 reps total during this drop set, and eventually end up doing 120 total after you do the 4 rounds of that super set. I ended with doing 120lbs, then 80 lbs, then 40 lbs.
3. During the “50 reps of Lsit pull-ups,” you can break them up however you want. I did 10 sets of 5 reps with a 30 second rest in between each set. Also, during this exercise, you can use a wide grip, or a close grip.
4. When I did the “10 handstands until failure,” I did mine off the wall and just tried to hold my position. If you are not comfortable with handstands, try holding the handstand against the wall for as long as you can.

Hope you enjoy this workout as much as I did. Let me know what you think or if you ended up modifying any of the exercises. If you have any questions, comments, or ideas for new topics, contact me at iamcjcutts@gmail.com

Low Intensity Steady State Cardio vs. High Intensity Interval Training Cardio

 - Why is it that cardio is always the hot topic of fitness discussion and seems to be the fix all solution to burning fat?

CARDIO is not the fix all solution when it comes to body compositional changes anymore!! Yeah you read that right! Cardio is not the fix all solution when it comes to body compositional changes anymore. Today I will be doing a comparison on HIIT cardio vs LISS cardio, since these two forms of cardio are used the most. By the end of this article you will have a really good idea of what kind of cardio is right for you and how to effectively use it. So you will no longer sit on the bikes reading magazines about Kim Kardashian’s marriage/divorce for hours and hours. You will learn how to get more bang for your buck when it comes to training.

Hold up what does the acronyms HIIT and LISS mean?

HIIT stands for High intensity interval training, which consists of short sprint intervals coupled with low-moderate intensity work. An example of this would be a 30 second sprint followed by a 4 minute steady pace walk to cool down and bring your heart rate back to normal and then repeating it. LISS stands for Low intensity steady state cardio, which consists of purely low-moderate intensity work. An example of this would be walking on the treadmill or riding the bike and being able to hold a conversation (we tend to see a lot of this at gyms).

                          Now that you have a basic understanding of the two forms, 

                                       let’s dive into some more detailed stuff.

Research:

1) A study conducted by the University of Tampa, FL, shows when you add in LISS you get a temporary boost in weight loss. Subjects lost a couple of pounds the first week and after that they lost nothing. This happened because their metabolism completely adjusted to that and that became their new set point to what they had to do just to maintain. LISS with a low calorie diet is terrible for fat loss and could cause muscle loss. During a low calorie diet, LISS cardio is more catabolic (muscle wasting) towards muscle as opposed to HIIT cardio being much more muscle sparing.

2) In the same study by the University of Tampa, FL, It showed that LISS caused more muscle loss than HIIT. HIIT caused more muscle retention because when you’re doing LISS (say fast paced walking) you’re not activating muscles the same way as if you were lifting weights. So when you sprint you have hip flexion, knee extension, and these are all weightlifting movements. HIIT is another way to overload the muscle. Just compare a sprinters body composition to marathon runners, more muscle mass! So, it’s really hard to argue with this study because the point about HIIT activating hip and knee movements. Hip flexion and knee extension are the same movements when doing leg workouts. Also, by doing high intensity work you are activating muscle fibers and anytime you activate muscle fibers you are primed for growth. LISS unfortunately can’t stimulate muscle fibers the same way.

Facts:

• You can’t do HIIT 5-6 days a week because eventually it will have a negative impact on your weight training and interfere with growth
• Many people have legitimate orthopedic, cardiac, and even psychological reasons to avoid HIIT, so LISS is their only option
• HIIT could be dangerous if not used right and could lead to injury
• HIIT and LISS on either a combined, cyclical, or rotational basis seems to be the best formula in my opinion

The Bottom Line

Do the type of cardio that you have a personal preference for. Whichever one fires you up the most because you’ll most likely work harder at it. HIIT is quicker, proves to be more effective for fat loss, creates metabolic changes, and helps with muscle retention but not everybody can do HIIT. LISS is safer, but takes twice as long to accomplish similar things and it still has its place for fat loss in moderate amounts, from a pure calorie burning standpoint (meaning only to burn calories & not make changes to your metabolism). My intentions weren’t to favor one form of cardio and bash the other, even though it sounded like that. My intent was to educate and notify you that times have changed and science is proving some good stuff with HIIT cardio. But at the end of the day it’s up to you on what kind of cardio suits you best. Hopefully, after reading this article you should have a really good idea of what kind of cardio is right for you and how to effectively use it.

FYI Tips:

Lactate Threshold (LT) and Anaerobic Threshold (AT)

There are 2 ways that muscle can burn glucose (blood sugars) and that is through aerobic work (with air) and anaerobic work (without air). For example, long bouts of LISS cardio is considered aerobic work and weight training or HIIT cardio can be classified as anaerobic work. The AT and LT are a great test for HIIT and LIIS cardio because it gives a great predictor of which type of work produces ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate). ATP is a quick burst of energy that we get in our muscles when we contract them (Ex: every time you do a bicep curl, you are getting a quick burst of ATP). HIIT produces better changes in exercise capacity as opposed to LISS cardio. High intensity training will hit the AT and LT, that’s what causes the body to make metabolic changes. When you are doing LISS, you are considered below the AT and LT.

                        A simple test is being able to hold a conversation while doing cardio. When doing HIIT you are                           above the AT and LT and when you are above the AT and LT you push for greater                                           improvement in metabolism which thus leads to better fat loss over time.

Author: Cj Cutts 

Want to start loosing flab very quickly

You don't have to count calories or follow some complicated diet plan; all you have to do is cut out these 3 foods from your diet for the next few weeks:

1.  Processed foods.  If it comes in a box or a package with a laundry list of ingredients, eliminate it.  Instead, concentrate on eating mostly whole, natural foods.

2.  Soft drinks, juice, and other sweetened beverages.  Drinks sweetened with sugar or high fructose corn syrup actually increase your hunger while feeding you loads of empty calories.

3.  Alcohol.  Alcohol is calorie dense and further wreaks havoc on your fat burning hormones, increasing your belly fat and making it harder for you to lose that pesky flab.

Want to get a flat belly fast?  Simply follow the above 3 rules.  You will automatically eliminate a massive amount of calories from your diet and you'll still be able to eat until you're full while achieving rapid results.  Put them in place today!