Morning Cardio

Q. Some fat loss programs suggest doing cardio in the morning before breakfast. Does working out on an empty stomach burn more fat?

A. I think this question was answered brilliantly by Alan Aragon, nutritionist and Mens Health expert.

"It's not the fat burned during exercise that matters, it's the fat burned between your exercise sessions that really counts. Worrying about how much fat you burn during exercise makes as much sense as wondering how much muscle you're building while lifting. (You actually don't build muscle during training; you break it down to trigger growth.) Exercise is the catalyst for change, not the change itself. During a high-intensity workout, your body burns carbohydrate and creatine instead of fat. But-and this is a great "but"-it stimulates your metabolism, which in turn attacks your fat stores between workouts. So you go ahead and eat beforehand. You'll need the fuel to make it a worthwhile workout."


Rick Mayo

Heavy Weights for Women

I often address concerns with ladies who understand that weight training is beneficial for weight loss but they do not want to gain any muscle size. A simple response as to why this should not be a concern usually involves an explanation of the relationship between the density of fat and muscle. Muscle is denser and thus takes up much less space than fat. An increase in lean tissue will raise your metabolic rate and result in fewer fat cells.

Take a closer look and perhaps these ladies have a point.

First, let’s explore the best ways to gain muscle. We must first understand the muscle growth (hypertrophy) principles, as well as the factors which affect it. Hypertrophy is the increase in muscle size as overcompensation for micro-trauma due to overuse. The two principal types of hypertrophy are myofibrillar hypertrophy, and sarcoplasmic hypertrophy.

Myofibrillar hypertrophy- is an enlargement of the contractile fibers (myofibrils). This type of hypertrophy is accompanied by the ability to exert muscular strength and is developed with low rep/heavy weight training (1-5 reps). This type of hypertrophy results in a much more dense and strong (functional) muscle.

Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, on the other hand is the increase in the volume of the non-contractile muscle cell fluid, sarcoplasm. This type of hypertrophy is accompanied by an increased resistance to muscular fatigue which is the result of a bodybuilding based routine (multiple sets/10-15 reps per set). This cell fluid accounts for 20-30% of the muscle size. This is type of hypertrophy may be desirable if you compete in bodybuilding but may not give you the ideal body for an evening gown. Unfortunately, most women’s programs are based on this type of protocol.

It would stand to reason that lifting heavy weights for low reps would produce a lean, muscular body without any “non-functional” muscle size. Very lady-like indeed!

Rick Mayo

Marketing

We just completed our facility marketing calendar for 2008. We develop our yearly marketing plans based on our success (or lack thereof) from the previous years' marketing efforts. Over our 16 years in business we have developed a simple yet effective tracking system for our marketing and business performance. We break our analysis into 4 simple categories:

1. Inquiries
2. Complimentary sessions (sales tool)
3. New clients
4. Retention

Each category reveals information about the performance of our company in different areas.

• Inquiries- We can look back on the year and easily determine which of our marketing efforts was successful by the number of inquiries we received during and immediately following a particular campaign. If you don’t track this aspect of your business, you are wasting your marketing money.

• Complimentary sessions- We use a complimentary session as a sales tool. We compare our total inquiries with the number of complimentary session that we performed in a given month. If the inquiries outnumber the comp sessions by more than 50%, we know that we need to work on our phone skills and our facility tours. Most people that contact us know what we do (hence the name North Point Personal Training). It is then up to us to convince our potential client that we are the right place for them.

• New clients- Once a potential client has contacted us and made the effort to come in and “test drive” our services, all we need to do is convince the client that we can service their needs. At this point they know our rates, services, hours and most aspects of our business. It is simply a matter of creating a positive experience. We strive for a conversion rate of over 80%. If we drop below this percentage, we review our communication skills.

• Retention- This one is a little tougher to track but it is the most important aspect of our business. Again, we strive for a retention rate of over 80%. If we drop below that number in any given month, we will revisit our training techniques, programming, communication skills and facilities in an effort to plug the leak. Normally, communication is the challenge (over promise and under deliver)and some simple coaching can correct this.

Again, these 4 steps are basic but invaluable for your training business.

Until next time,

Rick Mayo

Childhood Obesity

According to studies, obesity will outweigh all other diseases including cancer for risk of premature death in the near future. These studies cite the number of obese teens aging and becoming unhealthy young adults as the reason for the inflated numbers. We know that genetics account for some but not all causes of obesity. According to experts, lifestyle can attribute up to 50% of the determining factor for obesity.

As a father two, I understand that it can be tough to monitor everything that our kids eat. I think the best gift we can give our kids is to lead by example and be healthy and active ourselves. Monkey see, monkey do.

Until next time,

Rick Mayo