Happy Holidays from Train Insane

I do crunches everyday where are my ABS?

This is an all too familiar question for Aaron and I. Almost every client that both of us have ever had wants to spend time focusing on their abs. While this in itself is not a bad idea, it is HOW people want to work their abs that is most troublesome, and is the purpose of this article.

Before we get started, I have a couple questions to ask. How many of you have fallen victim to buying an ab training product from T.V.? Next, how many of you have spent a large portion of your workouts on crunches, and crunch-like exercises? Finally, how many of you have had ANY success with these methods? If this sounds like you, don’t worry I guarantee that you are one of many. So, now that we have identified the problem, I am sure that your question to us is “What is the right way to train?”

Now before we can answer your question, we must first identify the problem. First of all everyone on this planet was born with a 6 pack. That’s right EVEN YOU, have a 6 pack. The problem is that it is covered up by fat, and the muscles are weak from non use. Now that the problem is a little clearer, and the question has changed. Now the million dollar question is, how then do we remove the fat from on top of the muscle? The answer to this is again not that simple. At Train Insane we rely on 3 separate factors to remove the fat from our clients.

1. Specific nutritional strategies, geared towards meeting the needs of each individual.

2. High Intensity Resistance Training

3. Utilizing our T.I.M.E (Train Insanes’ metabolic elevator) cardio training.

Now although some of you may still be scratching your heads, we have just given you 3 tremendous tools to get you in shape. When these 3 things are used together, and properly implemented into your routine, results are inevitable. The next time that you are in the gym you should ask yourself, am I using these 3 principles? If the answer is no, then you need to ask yourself if you are getting the most out of your T.I.M.E at the gym. Unfortunately trying to get to your fitness goals by doing a 1000 crunches a day, is like trying to dig your way to China with a spoon….YOU WON’T MAKE IT!

Train Insane- In the gym: Interval Sprints

Watch Aaron as he shows an excellent way to maximize your
cardio workout using our T.I.M.E.( Train insane metabolic elevator) method

Only YOU!!! can stop yourself.

You must come to accept the factual calories in and out aspect of weight management; otherwise, there's no point in trying to solve for the motivation aspect. Repeat after me: if you're overweight, it's not because of your age, it's not your thyroid, it's not menopause, it's not because you don't eat enough, it's not your parents' fault, it's not the number of fat cells you were born with, it's not that you don't do your aerobic work in your target heart range, it's not high fructose corn syrup, it's not that you weren’t breast fed, it's not your medication, it's not your hormones, it's not sugar, it's not trans fat, it's not carbs, it's not because you eat after 7 PM It's not because you had a baby, it's not because you eat the wrong glycemic foods, and no it's not the fast food industry's fault if you are overweight and don't like it...And while some of the above issues may add to the difficulty of maintaining the proper calorie balance for weight control, none of them, or anything else for that matter, can stop anyone from losing weight. Only YOU!!! can stop yourself.

Train Insane- In the Kitchen

Train Insane- In the Gym

Ode To Buttter

Now that Thanksgiving is over, many people are left feeling guilty about all the food they ate over the holiday. Sadly for most people it was more than just one day of eating. All of this aside, I am not here to tell what to eat during your holidays (well technically I am, but for the sake of this article I’m not). Out of all the things that I heard that my clients had to eat on Thanksgiving, there is always only one thing that I just do not understand, and that is BUTTER. Why butter? This is a question that has bothered me for some time now, and I wanted to write about it so that you can all understand where I am coming from.

At my house during Thanksgiving, by now, my family knows how I eat. I have to admit that in the past I have been a total pain in the butt when it comes to food, but I have gotten better. In fact, on holidays, I eat pretty normal. My only exception is butter. There is not one single redeeming nutritional fact about butter. Nothing, not one, I have checked. So I guess my question is WHY BUTTER?

Just to give you a little idea of how bad butter is, I will start with the nutrition facts

Amount per serving
Calories 36	Calories from Fat 36

Hide Daily Values

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 4g		6%
	Saturated Fat 3g	15%
	Monounsaturated Fat 1g
Cholesterol 11mg		4%
Sodium 29mg		1%
Total Carbohydrates 0g		0%
Protein 0g

Vitamin A	2%	Vitamin C	0%
Calcium	0%	Iron	0%
Vitamin D	1%		%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

Now this is only based on one pat of butter. This is the amount that most people use on each roll, and realistically most probably use more. Many of you have probably never really looked at this before. Many people use butter simply because that is all they know. But look at the facts, 36 out of 36 calories are from FAT. That is 100% of all the calories from butter come from fat, and 66% of that is saturated(the worst fat). There is not one redeemable quality for butter. In fact most of the taste comes from the added salt, so you’re basically eating salt flavored fat.

If I sound a little wound up about this, it is because I am. This is an article that I have wanted to write for a long time. I have been trying to get my family and clients off butter since I became a trainer. Especially now that there are so many healthy substitutes for butter, I cannot fathom eating the real thing. I have switched completely to I Can’t Believe it’s not Butter (ICBINB) spray, and have never looked back. Even when I have to bake something, a recipe calls for butter; you can use the Smart Balance spread butter.

Let’s look at it like this. You are baking cookies for a party, and the recipe calls for 1 cup of butter. Well one cup of butter has 1628 calories! Considering that the average person needs about 2000 calories per day, you have started a recipe with almost a days worth of calories before adding any other ingredients. Not to mention that ALL of these are fat calories and you get 488 mg of cholesterol as well (For those that don’t know the daily allotment of cholesterol is less than 300mg and for those with high cholesterol it is less than 200mg). Instead, let’s say that you use Smart Balance butter spread; 1 cup of this is only 1280 calories. Now yes, this is only a 330 calorie difference, and yes all of these calories are from fat as well, but only 1/3 of the fat calories are saturated, and there is 0 cholesterol. Although if you look at the calories alone it may not seem like a big deal, where the calories come from, and the cholesterol content are a HUGE deal. Saturated fats like butter increase the likelihood for heart disease and other circulatory problems.

In closing I hope that have opened your eyes a little more about what goes into your body. At the very least I hope it makes you think twice about how much extra butter you add to things after the fact. I realize that people are not going to give up all things that contain butter, and I am not saying that that is necessary. What I am saying is that if you must, use a healthier substitute. If “taste” is the only reason that you have to eat butter then I have to ask you, is taste worth dying for?

Written By Geoff Etherson BS, NASM CPT, NASM CES, NASM PES

HIIT TRAINING- Super Charge Your Workout

Client Testemonial

Client Testemonial

Sugar Gone Wild!!!

The average american eats more than a 170 pounds of sugar each year!!! We know the facts about sugar, but these visuals quickly bring to our attention how much sugar is in our favorite food items

Each cube is a teaspoonful.

Client Before And Afters

Client Before And Afters

Client Before And Afters

"Do You Eat Naked?"

If I were the average Joe walking down the street, I probably wouldn't care so much about the eating habits of other people. However, as a personal trainer, dedicated and passionate about helping people transform their lives and bodies, I've built my professional life on health, fitness and human performance. This means that the cornerstone of all my work is a balance between proper nutrition and exercise - for me and my family, for my clients and for my team. So, forgive me, but I do care. I care a lot! Here's what got me thinking about your nutrition habits (more than I normally do).
The July/August issue of Fast Company (great magazine) includes an article on Darden Restaurants, owner of Olive Garden, Red Lobster, etc. Darden generated $6.7 billion in revenue last year by feeding 400 million meals in 1,770 restaurants. This is a giant restaurant company! You might be interested to know that even Red Lobster, home of popcorn shrimp and cheese biscuits, has decided to "revitalize" its brand to include what they call "stealth health." In other words, they are adding all new wood-fired grilling plus fresh fish menus reprinted twice daily.
I read this article and had mixed feelings. On the one hand, I said, "I'll believe it when I see it." On the other hand, I said, "That's it people - it's time to wake up and smell the coffee!" Come on folks, do the restaurants have to stop serving up a diet of salt, fat and sugar for us to make better nutritional choices?
The moment of truth has arrived. It's time to 'fess up to the big question. DO YOU EAT NAKED? I do as often as I can. Sorry to disappoint, but when I say, "naked," I mean food that is naked - not buried, covered up or disguised. Food that is fresh and nutritious and... well, naked!
My goal with this month's feature article is to persuade you to examine your eating habits, to say NO! to fast food, soda, processed foods, artificial sweeteners and high fructose corn syrup and to say YES! to a lifestyle of healthy, nutritious and fabulous food. To do this, I'm not going to lecture you about the evil of fried and processed foods. I'm not going to scare you with details of nutrition labels that read like chemistry experiments (and food that probably tastes like one too). I'm not going to quote research about the effects bad food choices can have on your health. No, I've got a better idea.
I'm going to win you over from the dark side by reminding you of what you're missing. I'm not telling. I'm selling... and the timing is great. Who doesn't love summer eating? Go to your local farmer's market or roadside stand and check out the August bounty: tomatoes, corn, zucchini, peaches, cherries, apricots, blueberries, strawberries, figs... and the list goes on. As a guy from the Garden State, I gotta ask, "How can it get any better than Jersey tomatoes and sweet summer corn?"
Being from a large family with eight kids, meal-times were chaotic, and typically, the only things in abundance were kids, noise and food that would fill us up. But summer would eventually arrive, and with it came some of my favorite food and some GREAT FOOD MEMORIES from my childhood. The memory of driving with my dad in his blue Bonneville and pulling into the Red Top Farm Market on Route 70 (it's still there!) will be forever etched in my memory. Dad and I would gather as much as we could carry (and afford) and head home with our bounty. Later, if we were lucky, mom would make fresh strawberry pies...
When I was at The College of William & Mary, a group of us went on retreat to Haiti with Fr. Charlie Kelley, the head of campus ministry at the college. This experience was a powerful one for me for many reasons, but one particularly vivid memory is of the local women with baskets overflowing with exotic fruit they carried on their heads for the five-mile trip back to their homes. They fed their children from these baskets for a week. Years later, Melanie and I spent our honeymoon in Costa Rica. I couldn't possibly count the number of mangoes I ate on that trip. I couldn't get enough then, and I feel the same way now when we visit Hawaii. Tell me there's a breakfast buffet at our hotel, and I'm there for the mangoes and pineapples!
Today, Melanie and I are raising our family with less red meat and white starches than I may have eaten as a kid, and fresh produce is front and center in our meals at home. Just like you, we want to be role models for healthful eating and nutritious food choices so that our kids grow up to be healthy and strong. Nowadays, our naked foods-of-choice might be blueberries and strawberries piled high on morning oatmeal, fruit smoothies we make in our Jack Lalanne Power Juicer, a handful of fresh spinach and other veggies in an egg white omelet or sliced avocados on nearly anything! We eat a lot of fresh fish prepared simply in the oven or on the grill and our frig is always stocked with a big variety of fruits and veggies.
Chris Mohr, a registered dietitian and nutrition expert I have introduced to many of you through this newsletter and my tele-seminars, gives us an easy rule of thumb to use for selecting foods - "the less legs the better!"

By Todd Durkin, MA, CSCS, NCTMB, Founder of Fitness Quest 10