Want to get in shape? Here’s why a smaller training studio is your best option

Today is the day. You’re committing to get in shape. Great! Now what?

 If you’re serious about shedding unwanted pounds or just feeling like your best self again, joining a smaller training studio with experienced, educated instructors will put you on a fast track to get there. You’ll trade the overhyped gimmicks, distractions and large, impersonal group classes found at more crowded gyms for what you really need to hone your body: personalized attention from a dedicated expert who can provide you with a wide variety of training tools to meet your specific needs.     

An experienced trainer will typically have a degree in kinesiology or exercise physiology. Consultations will help you to understand your needs and create a strategy tailored to you. The workouts are planned over the long-term for progressive gains. And, if you like working out with others, a majority of these gyms also offer smaller group classes and a strong sense of community.

Good instructors also recognize problems, have the know-how to correct them, and will keep you on track to continually improve and hit personal records. If you’ve had an injury, they will know how to treat it with corrective exercises. Your workouts will be modified to actually heal imbalances either caused by injuries or that could develop into one.

When it comes to fitness, nutrition is key. Adults simply don’t lose weight without proper eating habits. A good studio will do more than just hand out a flyer with a one-size-fits-all nutrition plan. Staff will know how to counsel you on nutrition, something other types of gyms don’t do well.

At the same time, expertise comes with a cost. Training studios often have the highest price point among gym options because they take on fewer clients in service of providing personalized, dedicated care. Putting your fitness and health first is worth it. That’s why many clients at these gyms make modest incomes but have decided to prioritize their training. Instead of wasting money on infective routines that don’t get results, do your due diligence on the front end to find the studio for you, and you’ll see fantastic results.

 Here are a few things to think about before you start.

 Be committed

Getting in shape requires work. It doesn’t happen magically. You have to show up regularly and put in a consistent effort to get results. People who don’t commit to the process end up quitting soon after they start. In fact, 80 percent of people who join a health club in January stop showing up by February. So, keep a mental picture of yourself getting buff. And recognize the benefits. While the benefits of exercise on physical health are a no-brainer, it’s well documented that it also increases energy and focus and improves moods and memory. By reminding yourself how good you feel after a workout, you are more likely to make it a regular part of your life.

Do your research

The fitness industry is rife with charlatans. Even among higher priced studios, instructors may market themselves as having expertise they don’t actually have. If you are interested in a studio, ask for a consultation. Make sure that the staff takes the time to sit down and listen to you. Have they assessed your physical condition? That’s important before you start, to know the right level to begin. You may also try a class or run through a workout before you sign on. Along with your hard-earned cash, you’ll be investing valuable time and energy.

Reassess

Once you’ve joined a studio, take stock of your progress every few months. Are you leaner? Stronger? Is your endurance better? There are plenty of examples of people who see the same trainer for ten years, and aside from being a decade older, they don’t appear fit. Ask yourself, is the program I’m on making me eat, feel and perform better? If not, talk with your trainer. And if he or she can’t respond, it may be time to move on. 

Life passes in a blink of an eye. So why wait? If you live near Ithaca or Albany, sign up today for a free consultation at Infinity Athletics!

Big Announcement!

As 2017 kicks off, Joey and I have been reflecting on what an amazing ride 2016 has been. Within just eight months of being in business, we've seen muscle gained, hundreds of pounds shed, fat melted, personal records smashed, confidence gained, and countless smiles. We are inspired every day by our clients’ dedication and humbled by their steadfast support. But above all, we are thankful that you have allowed us to be a part of your physical and mental transformations.

Since day one, it has been our company’s core value to spread the gift of high-quality, knowledge-backed training in an effort to help as many people reach their goals as we can. Due to a high demand and the rapid growth we’ve recently experienced here in Ithaca, we’re very happy to announce the opening of our second location in Albany, NY.

Our newest member of the team, Cory Comitale, has been appointed the Fitness Director and head trainer in our new location. Cory, a Kinesiology graduate from Cortland, has over 6 years of experience in personal training and Fascial Stretch Therapy (FST). In those six years, Cory has devoted countless hours to certifications and seminars to consistently offer services that over-deliver. It is because of Cory's unwavering dedication to his client's health, goals, and well-being that assures us he belongs in the Infinity family.

If you're in the Albany area and you're curious why an individualized training program is so important for just about every aspect of health, we'd like to extend to you a complimentary meeting with one of our trainers.

Our new facility located at 145 Vly Road Schenectady, NY is set to open by February 1st. Be sure to visit www.infinityalbany.com to request a consultation.

Yours in health,

Brian

How to Become a Fat Burner

Fat Loss Series - Part I

Losing weight is a simple algebra equation: calories in vs. calories out. Want to move the needle on the scale? Easy — eat less, do more. Targeting fat-mass however, can be a little more complicated.

Traditionally when you lose weight, a loss of fat-mass AND muscle-mass occurs. The ratio of fat-mass to muscle-mass that one loses, largely depends upon their training and nutrition.

Losing fat is a good thing, but losing both is bad. The less muscle mass you have, the harder it becomes to continue to lose fat, inevitably ending in plateaus and frustration. The higher amount of muscle mass you maintain, the higher your metabolic rate will be (metabolic rate = how quickly and efficiently you use energy, even at rest).

While losing fat can seem complicated, read on for a very simple way to turn your metabolism towards burning fat.

I. DAILY FASTING

Only in the last couple of decades has food been so abundantly available. With modern humans’ ancestry dating back to 200,000 years ago, our current dietary habits represent 0.001% of that time. However, evolution doesn’t work on that tight of a timeline. 

What this means for us today is that not much has changed in the way that our bodies are accustomed to eating. So if we look at everything pre-Agricultural Revolution, there is little to suggest that our ancestors were eating every two to three hours. In fact, it was more common to go days without food than have frequent meals available.

And in the last 200,000+ years, the human body has developed an internal clock that works in 24 hour cycles, also known as the Circadian Rhythm. This cycle predicts things like our sleep quality, energy and hunger levels, and even fat burning and storage. If we understand this normal hormonal rhythm just a bit, we can “hack” it for fat loss by properly timing our eating and nutrition.

Upon eating a meal, the body breaks down foods into simpler components to be absorbed through the wall of the intestines and transferred into the blood stream. The body then decides where you need these nutrients the most. The highest priority is supplying and rationing energy for the brain. The body then looks to lean muscle mass to ensure your muscle glycogen is topped off (muscle glycogen is like gasoline, and the muscles act as the gas tank).

Once the brain is taken care of, and your muscles are topped off with energy (glycogen), the excess is converted and stored as fat (to hopefully be used as energy at a later point). However, if we STORE more often than we are USING fat, then we simply add more fat cells to accommodate.

Another way to think of this is continually overfilling the gas tank in our car. If cars were like the human body, they would manufacture its own reserve tank to store some fuel for those long miles you never end up driving. With this analogy, “getting fat” equates to constantly over-fueling your car only to drive it to work and back. The reserve tank gets bigger and bigger as we never give the car a chance to dip into its reserve fuel.

A simple and effective way to combat this, is to give your body a chance to use what you’ve stored. A couple of hours after eating a meal (once the digestion process has cooled off) we start burning fat. If we are constantly digesting, the fat-burning process never has a chance to really take off. Thus the problem occurs when we are constantly eating and always in a state of surplus. Here’s the good news: at rest and during low intensity exercise, we prefer to use fat as a fuel source. Fasting is a simple way to take advantage of this natural fat burning process.

Fasting implies that we pick a window of time (14-16 hours) in which we are not consuming calories (only water, coffee, or tea). Sixteen hours may sound like long time, however, it typically shifts our normal eating schedule just a couple of hours. Most who employ this technique choose to eat their first meal around 11am or noon and stop eating around 7-8 pm. (Optimally, breakfast would be eliminated, due to the propensity for storing fat in the morning which I will save for another blog post).

This gives you 16 hours of time to digest, break down fat, AND help you dip into your reserve fuel sources. The more you acclimate to fasting, the better your metabolism becomes at using fat for energy. Over time, this process can account for melting pounds of fat off of your frame, from simply getting out of your own way. 

During the adjustment phase (first week or so), the body is more resistant to using fat as energy and this can contribute to low energy. Rest assured that this feeling is temporary. Once past this phase, energy levels are reportedly higher and remain more consistent throughout the day.

To sum up, fat loss has just as much to do with TIMING of nutrients as it does the nutrients themselves. If you’d like to talk more in depth about ways to hack your current nutrition habits, drop us an e-mail: info@infinityithaca.com

For the Skimmers:

• Aim to lose FAT, not WEIGHT
• Significant fat loss only occurs when we’re not busy digesting
• Having frequent meals can reduce time spent burning fat
• Avoid calories in the AM
• Pick an 8-hour window of time to eat, and 16-hour window to fast

Client Spotlight: Han Park

At INFINITY ATHLETICS, we pride ourselves on working with clients to manage realistic goals and plans to attain them. Every client is actively involved in setting their goals and managing them. This means that each client has to put forth just as much effort as we do to see results. 

It’s for this reason that it is always inspiring to see clients surpass their original goals and reach further in every aspect of their life.

Han Park is a shining example of a client’s commitment to the process. Han Park is a full-time law student at Harvard, member of on-campus organizations, and an active client of Infinity Ithaca, all while maintaining a part-time job.

In January 2016, Han submitted a Consultation Request with the vision to look good for the summer while optimizing his health. Han had tried other outlets of fitness in the past and found that having a plan and the accountability to show up every day made it easier for him to see progress.

For the past 6 months, Han has made the investment in himself and in his training to see some amazing results.

                                                 25 lbs of body fat --> 9.5 lbs of body fat

When Han started training he was over 15% body fat, which in terms of body composition means he had 25 lbs of fat. It’s important to understand, that while this might sound like a lot, 15% is average. But Han made it clear he was looking to stand out.

Over the course of working through his training and nutrition program, he dropped to 6% body fat, which means from 25 lbs of fat to 9.5 lbs of fat.

Our hats go off to Han as he makes a transition from Cornell to Harvard, but knowing firsthand Han's commitment to making himself better, we have no doubts of his success.

If you'd like to know more about our health optimization program, please feel free to submit a consultation request to chat with us.

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How to Fix a Broken Diet

If you feel like your nutrition’s off track – but aren’t sure what to do about it – hopefully this information will give you something new to consider and try.

Remember:

·         First, remove red flags and nutrient deficiencies.

·         Control your calorie intake without counting calories.

·         Consider your body type and activity level.

·         Observe your progress carefully. Adjust your intake as needed.

·         Do all of this consistently and long-term first, before adding any new strategies.

Whether you’re a beginner and trying to get started in the right direction, or you’re experienced but still spinning your wheels, these steps – when applied in sequence – can make all the difference.

What to Eat Before, During, and After