It seems as though most people feel like they need to spend an hour or two at the gym 7 days a week in order to get any real results. Well this simply is not true. The real problem is that people don’t know how to use their time efficiently in the gym.

This is the biggest problem I see at the gym. People walk around aimlessly doing a one set of an exercise and then spending the next 5 minutes resting or talking with friends before they do another set. No wonder why you can see the same people at the gym every day, but you never notice any changing in their bodies.

I am going to share a few of my training secrets with you so you can use manage your time more efficiently. This way you can spend less time in the gym and more of your time doing the things that you enjoy. The best part is that you will burn more fat, lose more weight, and get some serious results in less time.

When it comes to using your time in the gym efficiently the two main factors are the intensity of your workout and having a solid workout plan.

Here are a few tips to get you started

1.    Get yourself started on a workout program. Have a plan of what you are going to do before you get to the gym. Having a plan will eliminate wasted time. If you know exactly what you’re doing for your workout, it easier to focus on what you have to do to get it done.

2.    Get away from the crowd. When I am training clients or working out myself, I always find an area away from the crowd. A place where I can bring all of the equipment that I will need for the workout. This way you don’t have to wait for other people and you can move from one exercise to the next very quickly.

3.    Work out with a purpose in mind. It is important that you keep in mind what your goals are and focus on putting all of your energy in to each and every workout. Look at every set and reps as taking another step toward getting closer to your goals. This will help motivate and inspire you to get more out of your workouts.

4.    Make sure that you are using weight that are challenging. Get rid of your little pink weights, they are not going to help you build lean muscle and burn fat. In order to get stronger you must overload the muscles and give them more work than what they are use to.

For example if you are doing an exercise were you trying to get 10 reps, you should only be able to do 10 and no more. If you can do more than 10 reps you need to increase the weight because is to light and you are not challenging the muscles enough to get any real changes.

           You have to push yourself in order to get results!

5.    Use your time efficiently by pairing your exercises together and move from one exercise to the next. There are a few different ways to do this. My two favorite ways are circuit training and pairing two or three exercises together. This way I can move from one exercise to the next with a built in rest period. I am able to get through my workouts quickly because there is very little time is wasted in between.

When circuit training I will often use choose 6 to 8 exercises. I quickly go from one exercise to the next until I complete the entire circuit. Then I take a short rest at the end before repeating.

 When pairing exercises I will pair two or three exercise together. I will often pair a pushing, pulling, and an ab exercise together. Sometimes I will pair an upper body exercise with a lower body exercise.

6.    Reduce your rest time between sets. One of the best ways to increase your intensity is to limit your rest time between sets. This is a great way to keep your heart rate elevated and it helps to crank up your metabolism. I use a stop watch to monitor my rest time. I usually only give myself one minute or less in between sets when I am training. Sometimes I will even jump rope in between set as an active rest period.

7.    Instead of wasting your time walking on the treadmill for an hour, start interval training. By using interval training you will be able to burn the same amount of calories, if not more in half of the time. Interval training is short period of a high intensity activity followed by a short active recovery period.

For example you will run a sprint at an 8 mph pace on the treadmill for 30sec. immediately after finishing the sprint you would decrease the speed to 3.5mph and walk for 30secs as an active recovery period.  After 30 sec you would increase the speed back to 8mph and repeat.

If you can’t sprint you can jog at a slow pace then walk for your recovery. Another way is to power walk on an incline then decrease the incline and walk at a slower pace as a recovery. The goal is to push yourself to get better every day.

8.    Keep a workout journal. Write down your workout. Include the sets, reps, weights, and rest time. It is also a good idea to write down how you felt during the workout.

You should already be keeping a food journal so it should not be a problem to for you to keep a workout journal as well. I often recommend keeping both the food log and workout log in the same book. This way all of your information is in the same place and it is easy to look back and assess your results.

Another reason why you should keep a journal is so that you can look back at what you did in your previous workout and know exactly what you did and how you felt. This will help you push yourself to do a little better every time you workout. The goal is to get a little better everyday.

There are my 8 tips to help you use your time in the gym more efficiently.

Now it is up to you to start putting them into effect and start getting some real results!

By Benjamin Petitpas

I am constantly reading and doing research to educate myself. My goal is to be the best personal trainer that I can be and to be able to provide others with quality information that they can use to help get them in shape and be the best that they can be as well.

I often consult with other fitness professionals. I attend a lot of conferences and networking events. I also subscribe to quite a few different email newsletters from other fitness professionals as well.

This morning I was reading a newsletter from Craig Ballantyne, the author of Turbulence Training. He is on of the top fitness professionals and weight loss experts around. I always look forward to reading what he has to say, because he really knows his stuff.

In his newsletter this morning one of the training tips he mentioned was that every time you workout, you should be try to break your own personal record.

Every time you workout try to achieve your personal best for each lift or exercise. It can be your fastest time in a run, the most reps at a certain weight, the most reps in a certain period of time, or your personal best on a lift. It doesn’t matter what it is, just try to be better than the time before.

You should always be trying to do a little better than the workout before if you want to start seeing your body change and to see some serious results.

Use this as motivation to keep you focused on your workouts. Make it a competition and challenge yourself, to get better.

This is where keeping a workout journal becomes so important. By keeping records of your workouts, you can easily look back and see what you did in your previous workout and try and beat your last record.

I have records of my workouts that go back almost 8 years. I can look back and know exactly what weights and how many reps of a certain exercise that I began with 8 years ago. How many people can say that?

This is important, because I switch up my workout programs constantly. Most of my workout programs last for 4weeks, 6 weeks, or 12 weeks at a time. I can easily monitor my progress by tracking the results from my workouts. This allows me to see exactly what is working and what is not working. It also allows me to challenge myself, because I know exactly what numbers I have to beat.

So next time you workout, challenge yourself and establish your own new personal records. If you don’t keep a workout journal, now is the time to start. I promise it will help you get better results.

By Benjamin Petitpas

Everyday we get bombarded with advertisements for weight loss pills and supplements. They all have these great before and after pictures. I bet you have asked yourself at least once, will they work for me?

These weight loss pills and supplements are everywhere you turn, from TV commercials, magazines, and right in front of you on shelves of your local stores. You may know someone who has tried them before. You may have even tried them before yourself.

 Have you ever looked at the ingredients?

Do you know how they will help you lose weight?

Appetite Suppressants

These pills work to suppress your appetite by using chemicals to basically tricking your brain into feeling full, making you less likely to over eat.

Fat Blockers

These pills work by preventing a percentage of the fat that you consume from being absorbed during the digestive process.

Will these pills work for you?

Selling weight loss pills and weight loss supplements is a multibillion dollar a year industry. With all of the money spent on these weight loss pills, you would think that everyone would be skinny and that our country would not have an obesity problem, but unfortunately that’s just not the case.

Companies make promises like,” Lose 40lbs in 40 days” or something ridiculous like that. The problem is that these are just outrageous claims. There is no real quick fix for losing weight and keeping it off. The truth of the matter is that it comes down to eating healthy and exercise regularly.

Sure, weight loss pills may slightly increase your metabolism and suppress your appetite, and you may even initially lose a few pounds. However, weight loss pills themselves cannot produce any serious or permanent weight loss. The truth of the matter is that it still comes down to eating healthy and exercise regularly.

The following is just a few of the side effects of weight loss pills and supplements:

• Rapid or Irregular Heart Beats
• Feeling Lightheaded
• Raised blood pressure
• Increased risk of heart attack
• Cramping
•  Gas
• Diarrhea
• Constipation
• Headaches
• Dry Mouth
• Insomnia

By Benjamin Petitpas

“I am doing the same workout that has helped me lose 10 pounds initially, but I have not been able to lose any more weight.  How come I have stopped seeing results?”

This is a common question that I hear all of the time. This is something that can happen after a few months on the same program and doing the same thing every time you go to the gym.

One thing about the human body is that it has an amazing ability to adapt to whatever stresses that you put on it.

Initially, you may have seen some great results when you started your exercise program, because the exercises program was new.  Your body was not use to the new program and was under more stress that what its use was to.

In order to get stronger you must overload the muscles and give them more work that what they are use to. As a result the muscles will grow and become stronger as a way of adapting to the stimulus.

What happens in many cases is that most people begin an exercise program and initially they get instant result, but after a few months on the same program using the same amount of weight, sets, reps, time, or intensity levels the body adapts and you will hit a plateau and stop seeing results.

In order to get over this plateau you must change some of the variables. Here are a few changes to help you get over the hump so you can start getting results again quickly.

·         Change the exercises

·         Change the order of exercises

·         Change the weight

·         Change the sets

·         Change the reps

·         Change the rest time

·         Change the tempo

·         Change your program- circuit training, split routines, total body

This does not mean that you should switch your workout up every time that you come to the gym. No, the key is to give your muscles a chance to adapt before you switch up your program. Usually I will switch up the workouts every four weeks. This gives your muscles enough time to adapt and grow stronger from the new workout, but not enough time to for your muscles to hit a plateau.

By Benjamin Petitpas