Demonstration Video of the Week: Leg Lift

Demonstration Video of the Week: Inverted Row

Get Out Of Your Training Rut

Want Faster Results? Stop doing what you like.

How many times have you waited until after getting to the gym to decided what muscle groups to train? Are these the same muscle groups you train the most in a given month...at the expense of the rest of your body? A disheartening fact is that when most people go to the gym they perform the exercises they like the most and leave muscle groups they can’t see in the mirror for “the next day,” problem is “the next day” usually never comes.

This is even more of a problem for the infrequent trainer. Many gym goers will read a bodybuilding magazine and see almost all of the routines broken up into 4-5 day a week training cycles, a sensible approach that is advertised to only spend about 45 min a session in the gym for total of less than 4 hours a week. This is all well and good for the professional bodybuilder whose job is literally to workout, but for every other person outside the bodybuilding and fitness industry, work, family and life in general can get in the way of that trip to the gym. So inevitably days are skipped and as a result people tend to gravitate to the exercises they like the most...day after day, week after week.

The foods that most people enjoy are usually the worst for them, training is much the same way. For dinner should we start with desert and forget about the rest of the meal? That is basically what you should do if you don't want any nutrients just empty calories. Some of the best physique building exercises make people the most sore and are the least popular. At your local gym how long are the waits for the machines compared to the squat rack, pull up bars, and free weights in general? Machines do have their place, but think about it, you are working out sitting down…on a padded seat, not the most challenging way to workout.

To break out of this training rut you need to have a plan well before you walk into the gym. If you can’t make it to the gym on a certain day, don’t skip that routine until the next week just to keep make sure Mondays stay as your chest day as it has been for weeks, months or even years. Your body doesn’t care about the 7 day work week, so why should you when you exercise? All this does is perpetuating bad training practices which will lead to poor results. A very easy solution is to utilize a full body routine every time you go to the gym. This will cut down your gym time from 4-5 days a week to 2-3. Doing a full body routine consisting of just one exercise per muscle group each training session should add up to the same number of total reps as you would focusing only on a single muscle group each day. Plus, you should be spending about the same time in the gym each session as you normally would, but with the activation of more total muscle fibers during each session you will see a vast improvement in your physique.

If you have trouble finding workout routines with enough variety to keep you interesting you can always hire personal trainer for few sessions or take a boot camp or other type of fitness class to add some variety.

Personal Training in Huntington Beach and Greater Orange County Kettlebell Classes Huntington Beach Boot Camp Classes in Huntington Beach

Demonstration Video of the Week: Swiss Ball Glute Squeeze

FitnessWorkx Holiday Specials

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Demonstration Video of the Week: Dumbbell Chest Fly

FitnessWorkx December Newsletter

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Avoid the Holiday Pitfalls

Don't Make this Holiday Season Your Worst...

The holidays are without a doubt the toughest time of the year for fitness training. 'Tis the season for holiday feasts, a calendar packed with holiday parties, and foul weather all of which can diminish our motivation to train. In November and December we're faced with every temptation imaginable, which makes it difficult to maintain peak fitness. But here are 3 simple strategies we can do to keep ourselves on track.

Don't Skip Meals...
Too many of us think that saving ourselves for the big meals will keep us from eating too much, but usually the opposite is always the case. Not only do frequent meals increase our metabolism but we are much less likely to binge when we reach the dinner table.

Water, Water, and More Water...
We should all aim for at least 90 ounces of water a day. Not only will this keeps us properly hydrated, but will also help us digest those holiday meals. If you plan on having adult beverages, try to match each drink with one glass of water.

Stay Active...
Why not use those delicious holiday foods as recovery from an intense workout? All those precious carbohydrates found in starchy holiday dishes like mashed potatoes, or sugars found in cranberry sauce or pumpkin pie are excellent for glycogen replenishment. And the protein you'll get from that holiday turkey meal will help repair damaged tissue. Plus, our metabolism is more active after exercise, which will help us burn those little "indulgences" that may otherwise pack on the unwanted weight for upcoming training.

Demonstration Video of the Week: Bent Over Straight Bar Row

Demonstration Video of the Week: Single Leg Deadlift

Demonstration Video of the Week: Single DB Chest Press

Personal Training, Boot Camps, Nutrition

The Joy of Kettlebells

Though relatively new to American gyms and training programs, in Russia kettlebells have been a staple of training for over a century. First seen by American soldiers during World War II being used by Soviet troops, kettlebells were looked at with some curiosity. The unorthodox weight training program didn’t gain traction in the United States until after the fall of the Iron Curtain when former Soviet Special Forces soldier and personal trainer Pavel Tsatsouline reintroduced the kettlebell to America in early 2001. It started slowly, but as more and more people were exposed to the benefits of faster hypertrophy, improved balance, strength, body composition, and power, kettlebells can now be found almost everywhere.

The key to the kettlebell workout is the kettlebells themselves. Basically a cannon ball with a handle, all the weight hangs a few inches below the hand, making it much more difficult to control and manipulate, leading to a greater activation of muscles throughout all movements that traditional resistance exercises can’t match. Plus they are almost endlessly versatile. Everything from your hand strength to your core has to work harder than if you were using a dumbbell, so you get more out of even standard dumbbell moves. And because cadio is built in to all kettlebell workouts, you won’t have to dread running on the treadmill, or spend what seems like an eternity on the eliptical machine after you train.

With all new training regimes learning the proper form is the most important aspect for everyone whether a beginner, intermediate, or expert weightlifter. Taking an actual kettlebell class or a personal training session or even two is a smart way to properly learn all the movements, and once you do, you’ll have learned an new, fun and different program that most importantly works.

Kettlebell Classes, and Personal Training in Huntington Beach

Who Wants a Cabo San Lucas Vacation?

Mount Baldy Run to the Top

Congratulations to all the FitnessWorkx Trainers, Staff and Clients for finishing one of the toughest races held in California. The Mt Baldy Run to The Top is a 8mile race that climbs more than 4,000 feet and ends at the summit of Mt Baldy just above 10,000 ft elevation.




From Left-to-Right: Rick Rosendaal, Nick Rians, Sarah LeBerthon, Joel Duran, Francesca D'Eccliss, Erin Brady, Carlos Lopez, Sam Fu, Hunter Sugiyama, Jeff Cunningham

Midlife Exercise Increased Brain Function Later in Life

A very interesting new study from the University of Pittsburgh was published today on the online journal Neurology. The study followed 299 men and women with a average age of 78 for nine years and found that regular exercise cut the risk of typical age related memory loss by half. The researches used walking as a metric since it was the most common exercise the participates listed, but the lead author Dr. Kirk Erickson stressed that all forms of exercise would achieve the same positive results, "If regular exercise in midlife could improve brain health and improve thinking and memory in later life, it would be one more reason to make regular exercise in people of all ages a public health imperative."


Walking: Get a brain boost later in life by walking now - latimes.com

Instructional Exercise of the Week: Reverse Barbell Curl

Would like to send a BIG THANK YOU for everyone who participated in the SAVEOURBEACH.org Seal Beach Clean up on Saturday 9/18/10!! As a show of thank you www.FitnessWorkx.com held a free Boot Camp class instructed by Rick Rozendaal for all those who help clean our beach.

Lake Irvine Mud Run July 17th

The next Lake Irvine Mud Run is just around the corner. Team FitnessWorkx will again be there in force. Join us as we get down and dirty with the best of them. Spots are still available. For more information and to reserve your spot give us a call at 714-726-0075. We hope to see you all there! www.fitnesswork.com

Online Fitness Training Videos

With summer about to be in full swing and daily schedules constantly in flux because of work, summer camps, sport commitments and vacations free time becomes the one commodity we seem to loose first. In these circumstances we know too well that health and fitness is treated like a luxury and not the necessity it actually is. You are only given one body in life and it should be treated like the rare commodity it is. But with such busy schedule who has the time? That is why we at FitnessWorkx have online training videos to demonstrate proper technique and form for those who for various reasons don't have the time. These videos encompass the entire body with many different exercises for the same muscle group to keep your work outs fresh and to avoid plateaus, which is the most common pitfall in fitness training. Stop by www.fitnesswork.com to start your training today.

San Diego MS Walk

If you are in the San Diego area Saturday April 24, come join members of the FitnessWorkx team at NTC Park and walk for a cause. MSwalk.com Online registration is closed, but you can register at the check-in tent at NTC Park