Weekly Challenge #8: Double time!

Alright, so it has been 2 months since we started the Weekly Challenges and I want to know how you're doing with everything.  How are you with accomplishing the weekly challenges?  Do you feel like the challenges are doable? Here is what you are going to do for the next 7 days.

1. Drink 64-100 ounces of water each day

2. Burpees!!! Daily you must complete:
Beginners: 20 burpees
Intermediate: 30 burpees
Advanced: 50 burpees

Good luck this next 7 days with your challenges! I know you guys will all do amazing work! I hope that your weekends are filled with great times and sunshine. 


Committed to your health and fitness,
Justin and Angie LaPointe

Fitness Challenge #2: Bring it on!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

I hope that the week has started off to a great start and that you all have only great things headed to you this week.  OK! So, it is the start of another week and therefore another 7 days worth of awesome health and fitness challenges.  This week, we are going to be doing a nutritional and an exercise challenge. 

For the nutrition part, I want you all to focus on making sure you are eating 5 to 6 meals each day and are spacing them out about every 3-4 hours.  This is very important when you are working at getting weight off or keeping it off because it lets your body know that, one, you are not starving it and therefore it does not have to store all of what you are eating to fat. Then secondly, it keeps your metabolism running at a higher rate so you will feel hungrier and your body will have to fuel that it needs to give you more energy to do the things you need to get done everyday, as well as, having increased energy to stay and be active.

Now, for the exercise challenge! It is a burpee week.  If you are unfamiliar with burpees, please review at this link: http://betterbodyfitnessnw.blogspot.com/2012/04/best-total-body-exercise.html
Here is the concept.  I will have you all start with 10 burpees on day 1.  Then, on day 2 you add 2 for a total of 12 and so on for a total of 7 days you continually add 2 reps.  (You will end at 22 on the last day of your burpees. 

Good Luck with your challenges this week everyone! I know that you will do a great job and remember that you can always ask us any questions via our comments or our email.  I hope that everyone has a great week of kicking butt!

Committed to your health and fitness,
Justin and Angie LaPointe

Surviving The Holidays

WE ARE HAVING AN EVENT!!!!!


We are hosting a event here at Better Body Fitness NW! Surtviving The Holidays is an event that will arm you with resources so that you will be able to have healthy and happy holidays.  There are going to be samples of three different meals that are traditionally served during the holidays with a healthy spin on them, a grocery store tour (looking at what you should look for and what to buy), and general nutrition advice that you can use everyday!

Where: Better Body Fitness NW Facility
 1610 Red Soils Ct.
 Oregon City, OR 97045

When: December 6th at 6:30 to 8:30 PM

Please contact us for either more information and to reserve a spot with us. Slots are limited, so reservations are a must.

Call: 503-657-3814 to get your spot now!

Happy Holidays and we look forward to seeing you there!  

The Do’s and Do Not’s For Fat Loss

There are many misconceptions of exercise that we all have. Many facts have been pasted down for the bodybuilders like Arnold or from other fitness gurus but for those of us that want to loose fat and don’t have hours and hours to dedicate we need a quick and efficient way of loosing fat that will get us to our goals quicker than not. 

·         Rule 1: DO resistance training and NOT just cardio.

o   While cardio is still something that is still healthy for you and something that you should do.  It does not mean that you have to be on the treadmill walking/ jogging/ running for hours everyday. You should be doing exercise that will build up lean muscle mass.

o   Look at your body as a car and the more muscle that it has the bigger your engine is and more fat it will use up as fuel. The cardio that requires you to go for 30, 40, 50, or 60 minutes wont give you more muscle and wont use your fat as fuel as much as lean muscle mass would.

o   This will also shorten the time it takes to drop body fat and therefore getting you to your goals quicker! Only by adding a resistance training routine 2-4 times a week!

·         Rule 2: DO whole body metabolic training and NOT body part muscle splits.

o   First off, a body part muscle split routine is where you focus on a specific muscle group, such as: chest, shoulders, and triceps.

o   Whole body metabolic training is where you are combining opposite movements together, these are known as supersets.

For example:

§  Doing a lower body movement with an upper

§  Doing a push then a pull

o   These kinds of movements will increase your heart rate and will burn more calories than if you were to do body part split workouts.

o   Focus on these kinds of workouts 2 to 3 times each week.

·         Rule 3: DO focus your time on large muscle groups NOT small muscle groups (abs, arms, etc.)

o   By focusing on larger muscle groups you are taxing yourself more and the more taxing an activity is the more calories you will burn and do for burning off fat allowing you to reach your goals faster!

·         Rule 4: DO High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and NOT just jogging.

o   This is a big one. By upping the intensity you are going to burn more calories and you can actually lessen you time in the gym or that you spend working out. You will burn possibly the same amount of calories in half the time if not more!

§  Some great examples of HIIT training:

·         If you are on the treadmill, try jogging/ running at a faster speed for 3 minutes and then drop it back down for and other 3 minutes. And then repeat till you reach about 20 or minutes. You will feel like you worked harder and you will see that you did in fact burn more calories than if you were on there for 40 minutes.

·         Or do timed activity (1 minute going and 30 seconds break) repeats till you reach 15- 20 minutes.

o   Do these kinds of work outs 2 to 3 times a week.

·         Rule 5: DO eat good, whole, and REAL food and NOT processed and modified food.

o   This is perhaps one of the most important rules. This is what your body uses as fuel and what it uses when it works out.  No matter what anyone says, you truly can NOT exercise your way out of a bad diet. It will catch up with you at some point, whether that is for the start or years later. What you put into your body matters.

o   By eating real foods you are supplying your body with what nature meant for you to have and to use as fuel. The more processed or modified that that food becomes the less quality and the fewer nutrients that food will have to supply you with proper nutrition. See what  happens and how your body feels by switching up your food for the better!

Below is the inspiration for this blog and this article is a good read with awesome information. 

http://www.todddurkin.com/adults-and-fat-loss-do-this-not-that/

May this blog and article inspire you to improve your workouts! Good Luck!

Committed to your health and fitness goals,

Justin and Angie LaPointe