Women’s fitness is for the most part centered around cardio, and light resistance training (and I mean light) with lots of reps. First I would like to say good job to anyone who takes it upon themselves to get fitter. But don’t be fooled into thinking that cardio is going to make you skinny or weights are going to make you bulky or extreme dieting is enough to make you fit into that dress you loved from back in high school. I’m going to give you the reasons why you should do less cardio, lift heavier weights, and eat more.

1. Ever hear that if you want to lose weight you should do more cardio? Most of us have fallen into that trap. When you do any workout for a long period of time, the body stresses out, no matter how much you enjoy it. When your body stresses, it changes. Some stress is good, too much stress is counter productive. This means after about 30-45 minutes of working out, the body gets overly stressed and fat burning stops and muscle tissue breakdowns. This can slow down your metabolism significantly.

This isn’t instant though. It takes time to change the bodies metabolism. So most people see really good results with hours of cardio for the first two weeks of training. Until, finally they start hitting a wall “Plateau”. Weight loss goes down, fatigue goes up. You get softer, you start losing motivation, and you start eating more junk. This doesn’t seem very productive.

SOLUTION: Mix up your workouts. Don’t just run on the treadmill or step-mill, do some weights, do some body weight training, or take a good group class that is high intensity and gives you plenty of rest. I recommend 5 minutes of stretching/ muscle prep, 10-15 minutes of cardio, 15-30 minutes of resistance training or reactive training (high intensity bodyweight, sports drills, plyo-metric), and another 5 minutes cool down/stretch.

2. DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE WEIGHTS.
When I’m in the weight room, I’m usually the only woman there actually lifting some weights. I mean there are other girls but they only lift 10lbs and under. It’s actually pretty sad. Why are ladies afraid of the weights? I hear it all the time, “I don’t want to get bulky.”

Fact is, most females lack sufficient testosterone to make them bulky. Also it takes more than just lifting heavy weight to gain muscle mass. It takes a properly designed weight lifting regimen and proper nutrition to gain those bulky muscles. In some cases drugs are used to make it more possible for men and women to get bulky muscles. However, it is possible to do it naturally, but it does take a very specific program, intensity, and discipline. Point is, as a woman you have to tell yourself, “I want to get bulky and try really, really, REALLY hard to do it.” So don’t be afraid of the weights.

Weight training also increases muscle strength and bone strength. Proper weight training can decrease the chance of having osteoporosis which is very common in women. Also weight training in most studies has been shown to burn more calories during a workout and also raise your metabolism throughout the day.

SOLUTION: Don’t be afraid of adding weight training to your workout. You wont be adding masculine bulky muscles. You will actually build a gorgeous curvy figure that will look great in a bathing suit.

3. DIEting
Literally people think that if they don’t eat very much their body will burn fat. This is fine in theory but it just doesn’t work very well. On top of that p
eople eat less and move more. Remember how I talked about stress. Not eating enough food to sustain your activity is damaging to your body’s metabolism.

SOLUTION: Eat according to your activity level. Its fine to eat less and move more but don’t starve yourself thinking that you’ll lose a lot of weight. It’s unhealthy and counterproductive.

Basically, don’t listen to those who say “more cardio is better” or you shouldn’t be lifting weights because you will get bulky muscles. This is simply not the truth. Fact is most of these people don’t know what they are talking about. You will gain strength without bulk, tighten and tone up your entire body without looking unhealthy and flabby. Would you rather waste a lot of time and energy at the gym and end up with a soft unhealthy body or achieve great results and spend affecting and less time?

Christine Tarpinian, Certified Personal Trainer
Christine.trapinian@gmail.com
Cell: (323)428-1900

The post Cardio, Weights, Food appeared first on Fit From The Ground Up.

Hello everyone, this is Christine. I constantly get asked, “great transformation! What motivated you to change?”

I decided to put it all out there without holding anything back. After all this is my past that shaped me to be the person you see today. I’m going to talk a little bit about my inspiration to live such a healthy, active, and successful life. I want to share how I went from being an irresponsible, self centered, partying alcoholic who experimented with drugs, to a healthy self made business woman who helps countless people everyday live healthier and happier lives.

Every once in while I come across older photos of myself. Calling myself a bit of a wild child is understatement. Always with an alcoholic drink in one hand and a cigarette on the other, I remember I used to drink heavily almost every day, which throughout the years lead to recreational drugs of all sorts. Wasted my life in bars, repetitive partying and after parties that lead to nowhere but trouble and stupid decisions. I don’t understand how I thought I was having fun, but it took it’s toll on my mind, body, health and motivation.

Life was going nowhere. I had so many dreams but I didn’t have the discipline nor the motivation to accomplish what I truly wanted to do. As money became a problem I took jobs here in there to fund my dead end habits. I didn’t have the courage nor the strength to distance myself from the “scene.”  Mostly out of fear of losing friends and experiencing something new.

I felt no more joy in partying. I found myself asking, “What I am I doing? What will I be doing in the future? Will I ever be successful?

A friend of mine told me about personal training and offered me a job. At that time I was overweight, unhealthy, and far from fit. I’m glad he believed in me though. From there I began educating myself about health & fitness. This changed my life.

To put this change further into context, at my heaviest I weighed 180lbs. I was out of shape and my body was breaking down. I look at those photos now and I see a different person. I was all talk and no action. I wanted to do big things but didn’t truly believe I was capable of achieving. I had the drive but couldn’t do this alone and was lucky to find myself a good support system and have an amazing mentor, Ruben, who really believed in me and taught me a lot about training. Now I pass it on to others. I am very grateful.

It’s amazing to look back how my life has done a complete 180. My priorities and goals are completely different. They are very high and most importantly achievable. Today, I believe in myself. I am much stronger, so much more confident and I know nothing could stop me or get in the way of anything I ever want to accomplish in my life.

The point is, I was able to do it. I transformed myself not only physically but mentally. There are many more people changing their lives every single day so there’s no excuse.  As soon as you stop making excuses, you can start your weight loss transformation today….you’ll start seeing a change in your life and I promise you’ll be happier for it.

Christine Tarpinian, Certified Personal Trainer
Christine.trapinian@gmail.com
Cell: (323)428-1900

The post Motivated To Change appeared first on Fit From The Ground Up.

Sandbag workouts are some of the most intense workouts out there period. You can burn about 1200 calories in one workout depending on how conditioned you are. Due to the shifting sand or water the amount of energy expended, even doing some of the most basic movements, is much higher and recruits more muscle fibers resulting in an increase in metabolic efficiency, this means you burn more calories and you gain some conditioning.

Sandbag Workout- Get Shredded

The full Sandbag Workout routine can be seen bellow.

• 5 Staggered Cleans both sides
• 10 Bent Over Rows
• 10 Single Arm Bent Over Rows Both Arms
• 5 Rotating Cleans to Zercher Both Sids
• Zercher Squat
• Shoulder Squat Both Sides
• Around The World Both Directions
  • 3-6 rounds- 60-90 seconds rest

This is a heavily metabolic workout. That means that you burn a ton of calories. Your body is constantly engaged doing every single one of these individual exercises. Remember not to take little to no breaks. You want to work out as intense as possible so you can burn the most amount of calories and build lean body mass. High intensity training has been proven time and time again to be one of the best ways to burn fat and gain muscle. Also, by doing full body exercises you burn way more calories than you do in single joint movements. With the sandbag your entire body is engaged in almost every movement, and its not just because of the shifting sand, but due to the longer lever arm between you and the load itself. Notice how the center of the weight is between 6-9 inches away from your hands. That by itself increases the working load significantly. To add to that concept the handles are flexible this also challenges your grip in multiple types of movements. Also in certain lifts certain handles or just gripping the bag without the handles can illicit more neural-muscular activation thus adding to the training stimulus in a positive way.

Over all this workout can be used for many different thing like

• Weight Loss
• Fat loss
• Gains in strength
• Muscle definition
• Increased performance
• Increased balance

The post Sandbag Workout appeared first on Fit From The Ground Up.

Here is Fit From The Ground Up’s review on The Ultimate Sandbag. This Sandbag is Flawless in design, durable, versatile, and the training system is one of the best and exciting systems I’ve seen in a long time.

One word describes this product. Flawless.

This is by far the best product I have ever purchased.

1. Durable
   Since I use my training tools for my personal training clients and my group classes, my number one concern is durability. How much usage will I be able to get out of something if I’m using it 30+ hours a week? It’s stood the test of time, numerous beat down sessions, and unorthodox training methods. So it meets my number one concern.
2. Versatile
   My second concern is, how versatile is the product? This means can I just use it for one thing or can I use it for a variety of things? This is the difference between having a tool so useful there is no need to put it away because you use it so often, or something collecting dust on a shelf because you only use it for one specific thing.
   You have to tear me away from my Ultimate Sandbag. I use it so much. 75% of my workouts have section dedicated to the Sandbag. I even use it as a pillow, just kidding. The level of usability for this product is amazing. I use the Ultimate Sandbag from beginner clients, where I have to emphasis stability and more isometric exercises, to my most advance clients that I can super-set power workouts with strength workouts without ever changing my training tool. It’s not an awkward piece of equipment either. The transitions from one exercise to another can be so seamless, that once a certain level of proficiency is attained that one can burn more then 1000 calories in an hour, no sweat ( pun intended).
3. Instrtuction
   The Third thing I look at is the system. When you by a tool, that you don’t know how to use, you need instructions. We’ve all gotten instructions that you have no idea what they mean, they might as well be written in another language. This is not the case with the Ultimate Sandbag. Josh Henkin, the creator of the Ultimate Sandbag, works hard on making sure that the instructional booklet is easy to understand, instructional DVD is full of useful tips and workouts, and he has a number of training tips, videos DVD’s that he produces on a regular basis to insure that we not only get the best product but we maximize the way that product is used.

Click below for my video review of the product.

The post Review: The Ultimate Sandbag appeared first on Fit From The Ground Up.

I know that everyone takes the opportunity to use the changing of a year to initiate a change in themselves. These are our New Year’s resolutions.

I admire people who try to take action to change a part of them that they don’t like or believe they can enhance. This is a sign of action. This is a sign of growth. Both of these are good qualities to have. It’s better than sitting there hoping that things will get better without taking personal responsibility and blaming others for your shortcomings. So, pat yourself on the back for taking control of your life this year.

For the New Year, reflect on the positive of the last year. Be happy for what you have accomplished, I’m sure you worked really hard for everything. Also, reflect on some of the negatives. Figure out why there were some failures, mistakes, mishaps, or bad luck. What can you change about yourself that will hopefully equate to a higher rate of success? Now that you have reflected, it’s time to start your list of resolutions.

After writing your New Year’s Resolutions, what now? It is time to follow through and make 2012 the beginning of an upward trend; this trend that will lead you to become the person you truly envision being. But what can you do to ensure success? Here are a couple of tips that you can use to make 2012 a greater success than last year.

1. Write down your resolutions.
Pen on paper last longer then wishful thinking.

• Have you ever noticed that if you don’t write something down you tend to forget it? Think of the last time you went grocery shopping. If you had a list, you probably got everything you wanted, except for the small pony (out of stock, sorry). If you didn’t have a grocery list you probably had to take multiple trips or had to substitute ingredients in your home-made lunch. The point is that writing things down helps us remember what we want. It also holds us accountable to ourselves. There is just something psychological about thinking a resolution, saying it to someone, or actually writing it down on paper.
  • So sit down in a quiet room, by yourself. Reflect on what you like and what you don’t like about yourself . This is called taking inventory of yourself. Make resolutions that strengthen the things you like, and  eliminate the things you don’t like. Make the list as long as you want. Then rank your top 5, top 10, etc. This will help focus your goals. Put stars next to with those you think you might need help. Start brain storming how to set operation “New You” into effect.

2. Have a support system.
Family, friends, and coworkers. 

• There are some things you can do alone but sometimes you need that extra bit of strength, not to give into your old habits or to push you just a little bit beyond your comfort zone.
• Remember, accountability is powerful. If you make sure to have a person that can hold you accountable for your goals then it should increase your chances of success.
• Surrounding yourself with the right crowd is another form of support. People do what their friends do. Make sure that you have the right friends so you accomplish your goals this year.
  • One trick that I enjoy using is telling everyone who I associate with what I want to do. Then I ask those who might share similar goals if they want to buddy up and tackle the new year together. For goals I don’t share with others, I ask friends to hold me accountable every week for my goals. I give them permission to scold me and punish me for losing focus. Coupled with notes and letters I leave around the house, I have to deliberately give up on my goal in order to fail.

3. Make short term resolutions that you can build upon.
Each success is motivation to continue winning.

• A journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. The first goal is to get started. Once the first step is taken, there are hundreds of tiny victories that eventually build up to a massive accomplishment. So remember to set long-term goals but also create smaller, more simple milestones that will keep you moving in the right direction. This will keep you motivated because you’ll feel good about each small victory and look forward to the next.
• Goal setting is actually pretty difficult. A lot of us just want to set a goal, try moving towards it, not thinking of the sheer size of the goal or time it may take. This mentality may result in a loss of motivation. Many people are short-sighted and lose track of their goals because of work, school, and family. So take some time to set the ultimate goal, then backwards plan from there. Keep each step simple, something that you can easily do. For example, if your goal is to get a better job some easy goals may be: enroll in school, take one or two classes or certificates, open up a monster.com account, or start revising your résumé, etc.

4. Don’t be rigid with your goals.
Don’t give up just because you failed once.

• Many people defeat themselves when it comes to change. I hear this all the time, “ I messed up yesterday on my diet so I’ll start again on Monday” and its only Tuesday. Sometimes people use failure as an excuse to put their goals off. Don’t use one messup as an excuse to put off who you want to be. My advice is as soon as you can refocus and continue. You should not start over. If you can’t look past your mistakes and you put things off, you will never accomplish anything. Harsh dose of truth is you’re going to fail many times in life but the difference will come when you push past the obstacles and keep your eyes focused on success.
  • Very little explaining is necessary here. Basically if you mess up you can’t continue to mess up. When you fall, stand up , wipe that dirt off you shoulder, recompose yourself, refocus yourself and attempt to limit actions that go against what your goals are. The worst way to go forward is by going backwards or staying still.

5. Use your strength to overcome your weakness.
Think outside the box. 

• If you focus more on the good things in life then you might forget about doing the bad things.
• Utilize something you’re good at to create a better environment for success.

6. Use your resources.
Don’t reinvent the wheel. 

• There’s a reason why you put yourself into a situation where you had to make a resolution. Utilize your resources: ask your friends, consult an expert, ask your family for advice. Google is not the only place to search and it is not always accurate. Remember that two brains, in most situations, are better then one. Asking someone for help might give you a different perspective on the problem.
  • Every single decision I make I want to make sure I am not re-inventing the wheel. So I ask friends, family and co-workers for advice. Even if they don’t know sometimes they can offer a different perspective or approach that may lead down the path of success.

7. Don’t buy into the hype.
There aren’t any magic pills

• Remember, depending on how old you are you have most likely developed whatever habit you’re trying to kick for most of your life. That means years of creating bad or undesirable habits. Don’t think that in just one month of telling yourself this is the year, you will finally make it happen. It takes time to change and even more time to change permanently. There are no magic cures, no single response, no simple “duct tape can fix it all answer.” Expect things to take time. Expect them to be hard. Expect to feel uncomfortable. Expect to have a little bit of failure. But ultimately expect to accomplish your goal.
• So be patient. Be disciplined. Be optimistic. Whatever you do, don’t give up on yourself or the people around you. Even if you want to give up think about those who see you as a role model. Set a good example of discipline, determination, and hard work.

The post Success In The New Year appeared first on Fit From The Ground Up.

If you have already seen my before & after photo, you know to take my word when I tell you what works and what does not. My journey and transformation has been no secret so far. I tried almost anything you can think of to try to look the way I wanted. Fad diets tortured me with starvation, hunger, cravings, and complications.

Everything I will talk about will come out of experience. Back when I didn’t understand healthy weight loss and was impatient and desperate, I was willing to try anything that promised a quick fix.

Enter “The Master Cleanse”, probably the hardest of the fad diets I’ve tried.

I heard about the Master Cleanse (the lemonade diet) because  all the celebrities were doing it. Beyonce did it right before her roll in Dream Girls lol, and “I thought she looked good I will try it too”. This is the worst thing I’ve ever done to my body.

Here’s how the diet works:

• You squeeze fresh lemon juice, then add Grade B Maple Syrup and Cayenne Pepper into water
• You are supposed to drink minimum of 6 to 12 glasses throughout the day for 10 days straight whenever you feel hungry.
• Take laxative every morning and evening.
• They say that “you will overcome the psychological need to eat and you will loose 2 lbs a day.” Sounds too good to be true. I mean 2 pounds a day!

This is one of the extreme fad diets out there and I sure did lose weight.  I also lacked energy I became pale and malnourished not to mention I had lots of  headaches. Essentially, I was starving myself there was no balance to my diet.  Appropriate amounts of protein, fats, and essential vitamins and minerals were non-existent in my diet. The weight loss itself didn’t come from fat, most of it came from muscle tissue. When the body isn’t getting all the macro nutrients necessary, the weight loss usually comes from loss of muscle mass and or water weight. My body still stayed flabby, unhealthy and well unattractive. I was what they call Skinny-fat. Where I was really skinny but I still had flabby skin, a soft form, and fat in all the troubled areas; ie back of the arms, abdomen, and inner thighs.

These fad diets promote short-term weight loss. There’s no long-term weight maintenance. Sure enough I didn’t maintain mine because I went back to my usual unhealthy eating pattern at the time and due to my loss of muscle my metabolism was way slower than when I started the diet. That means I actually got fatter then when I started the diet.

Remember a balanced diet appropriate for your activity is key in staying healthy. That includes the right amount and kind of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats to maintain normal body functions. The right portions and a properly distributed calorie deficit is what will eventually equal healthy weight loss.

If you need any help with any of these concepts contact me and I’ll help you get on track to becoming “Fit From The Ground Up”.

Christine Tarpinian
Make sure to add me on facebook

www.facebook.com/ChristineTrainer

The post Fad Diets: The Master Cleanse appeared first on Fit From The Ground Up.

I can’t believe I finally convinced myself to put this up due to everyone’s request. I would never dare to show this pic to anyone but if I have to put myself out there in order for me to inspire and motivate then so be it.. And since I’m doing this, I might as well do it right and go back all the way to 2004. I was 20, heaviest I’ve ever weighed at 175-180lbs. I don’t even know my Body Fat% because I always followed an unhealthy lifestyle, eating McDonalds everyday.

I am posting this in the hopes of leading you by my example. Just over 7 months ago. I was still fairly overweight. Weighing in at 150lbs with 32% Body Fat.  7 months down the line, I have adapted a healthy lifestyle. Cleaned up my nutrition and have been very active. I have never been fitter in my whole life. I have never felt better in my whole life.  I have never been happier in my whole life. I look in the mirror and I’m proud at myself.  I have and will continue to work very hard and if I can do it, I know you can too. IT’S POSSIBLE!

Christine Tarpinian

PS: Make sure to friend me on facebook. www.facebook.com/christinetrainer

The post Fitness Success Story appeared first on Fit From The Ground Up.