Anyway,  I was reading through some of my old fitness posts today and it made me remember how much I actually enjoyed answering peoples’ questions and helping them out.

I just reconnected with some of the people I helped on Facebook, and I think I just may have made a difference.. Cool, right? Ha.

So, I’m bringing back the Ask Doug section out of retirement - at least for the time being.  This blog has changed direction a few times, but it’s time for me to get back to basics and write more about what I know.

• Losing fat quickly
• Building Strength
• Designing Quality Programs for yourself based on what you’re trying to do. (ie, look better, lose fat, build muscle, gain strength, etc)
• Preventing injuries

I know there’s already probably too much info on fitness out there, both on the internet and everywhere else, but I still get questions from friends all the time about tons of things related to fitness.  And, in my always humble and objective opinion, I feel I’m better than most people at analyzing and addressing specific, real world fitness related questions.

Feel free to write in your specific questions, and be sure to be specific.  Details like your current weight, current routine / program, your age, gender, injury history, and your experience with weights will help me deliver an answer that will actually help your current situation.

Anyway, hopefully I’ll be posting something up here soon, and, if the question is particularly good, I may even throw up a nice audio post like I was doing last year.

Until then, I’ll leave you with this post from the archives that I just sent to a buddy of mine with regards to approaching splits in your strength training program.

Since the last post, I’ve taken on a few personal training clients and have decided to get my business back going in Jacksonville. So if you know anybody looking to lose a few pounds, or someone who doesn’t know where to start with their fitness routine, just have them give me a call or shoot me an e-mail ..

I’m doing a little advertising on Craiglist and just threw together a quick sales page today for Personal Training in Jacksonville. It’s not much to look at, but it’ll do for now ..  The cool thing is, it’s been up two days, and it’s already number 3 in the Google Local Listings!

As far as business, I’m loving training the clients I’m working with right now. I haven’t found a home gym to train out of just yet, but I’ve found that many people value the fact that I’m willing to go to them and train in or around their home..

Anyway, I’m now officially open for business, so if you know anyone looking for help or in need of some guidance please send clients my way - After a year and a half training clients, I know how to get results..

Take care!

Technorati Tags: personal training, updates

Okay, so I’ve been a real slacker lately — at least when it comes to my OWN blog.

The truth is, I’ve been working away behind the scenes with all that’s been going on with Super-Trainer and haven’t had much time to keep this blog updated.  Also, the content on some of the other blogs are so great, I’ve been trying to think of how I can take a different approach.

The title you see on this website may be a little deceiving.. While I’ve been doing a lot of traveling and consulting, as well as attending a couple major fitness marketing events such as Fitness Business Summit and the Continuity Summit, I’m really not the “gossiping” type - if that’s what the title implies.  I’d rather take the approach of keeping you updated on the industry, but also writing about things that  will help you, your marketing, and your web presence - as in things that can help you today.

I’d even like to venture outside of fitness from time to time and talk about things like business, finance, money, and maybe even women?  Who knows.. (not me)

Also, I’m opening back up my “Ask Doug” section soon, but instead of answering questions from aspiring high school football players and young women looking to lose weight in time for their wedding, I’ll be answering questions about marketing, using the web, and social media etc. You’ll be able to write in questions and have me answer them on the blog and in my newsletter (which I’ll be getting ready soon).

I’ve noticed in my e-mail interactions with other trainers that lots of people are needing guidance and help just with getting set up with a website, basic search engine optimization, and setting up their blog and SEO configuration set up correctly - which are all very important steps - and there are ways to make the jump much more quickly and painless than you may think — so I’ll be answering a lot of questions addressing that, so be ready.

Also, expect to start seeing more frequent and informal posts just about things I’m thinking about and interesting articles that I find.. I figured out that I’m going to have to keep this blog fun for ME for there to be any chance to keep it updated.

I may also look to jump on the “interview bandwagon” and get some of those up here too, because they’re actually a lot of fun.

Anyway, I’d love to hear some feedback on this in the comments section (though this may be hard because I haven’t been posting at ALL). This post is pretty much serving as accountability to force myself to get blogging again!!

After all, I shouldn’t be allowed to help people with this stuff, if I’m not doing it myself - so watch and learn!

Technorati Tags: blogging, Fun, updates

If you’re familliar with any of my past fitness articles in the past, you know how I feel about Swiss balls, stability balls, bosu balls, and other similar devices when it comes to effective and safe exercise.

Trainers don’t know what they’re doing, the balls are popping, and people are getting hurt!  Go check out my recent guest post on Super-Trainer about 3,000,000 exercise balls being recalled.

Anyway, my buddy Mike over at AskTheTrainer.com is creating a database of Kinesiology and Exercise Science degree reviews from trainers across the country.

I recently did my college degree review of the Georgia Southern University Exercise Science program.

You can find it by clicking the link above. You can probably sense my own bias in the review, but can you blame me? I happen to like my school. Lots of good memories there.

Also, if you’re a trainer, I know Mike is looking for more reviews - just send him an e-mail letting him know you’d like to help out.

For those of you interested in human movement, human performance, or personal training and are choosing a college, look no further than GA Southern. They do an outstanding job preparing you for a career in fitness - especially if you’re into having a little fun along the way in your college experience. (How’s that for loytalty?).

Here’s the link again.

Anyone else have some good college experience they’d like to share? Leave your comments below.

Technorati Tags: askthetrainer, georgia southern degree-review, kinesiology degree, personal training degree

Question:

I’m a 16, male, have been lifting for about 2 years, i weight about 160lbs and my wrestling season just got over. Before wrestling, started I had about 12% body fat, then I dropped about 8lbs for wrestling. Anyway, I will be a junior in high school next year and I started varsity as a sophomore at linebacker. I hope to play college football at a linebacker, but I need to gain some weight, and I was wondering: -What is the best way to gain a lot of muscle fast? -What muscle will give you best success on the field? -Which ones to work on the most, and are there any supplement’s you would recommend?

Now I feel where you’re coming from because I was in a similar situation in high school. My primary sport was baseball, and it was the sport I wanted to focus on. But, I wrestled from the 6^th grade through my sophomore year in because I liked the sport and the competition.

The hard truth is, wrestling is not exactly the best sport if you want to pack on the pounds - I didn’t know any better, but I remember eating only a small bagel and a glass of ice water for my lunch, and then following it up with a grueling practice - not exactly a good way to bulk up.

Nutrition

I did this so I could stay in my weight class.. This of course is before I learned some more advanced nutrition principles that would’ve allowed me to eat more and stay lean… Ohh if I could go back in time with what I know now.. Haha.

Anyway, long story short, I ended up quitting wrestling, because I didn’t want to stay at a scrawny 145 pounds for baseball - and it was a smart move. I wanted the strength and mass to hit doubles to the fence and, of course, the occasional homer :). I went from the 145 weight class to a playing weight of about 174 my senior year.

Here’s the BIG secret when it comes to gaining mass for someone like you who is already lifting.

Listen carefully now…

IN ORDER TO GET BIG, YOU HAVE TO EAT BIG.

Seriously - Write this down on a few pieces of paper, put it in your school locker, in your bathroom at home, and keep one in the car (if you drive yet, haha).

This is a quote I read a few years ago that stuck with me. I’m not sure who said it - it’s almost too simple, but it gets right to the point. You can lift and lift, until it feels like your arms and legs are going to fall off, but if you don’t eat big, you’ll never be big.

And this is why wrestling is a terrible sport to go along with football.

Think about it - there’s a conflict of interest. Wrestling rewards a body that’s strong relative to its bodyweight. Even if you’ve trained hard and gained a bunch of strength, in wrestling, you can be disqualified from competing just because of your weight.

But in football, relative weight doesn’t matter. If you’re a 160 pound linebacker and you’re strong for your weight, it’s not going to help you much. The 200 lb running back that has more mass is going to run you over - simple as that.

All the matters is how you perform on the field. Now even in football, you don’t want to have too much excess body fat as this may slow you down, depending on your position. But, the fact is that these are two sports that just don’t go together.

So step 1, if you’re serious about playing college football, you need to give up the wrestling. This will allow you to get on a more appropriate nutrition program for a 160 pounder like yourself. (HINT: it will involve having a fork in your mouth most of your waking day). Just make sure you’re getting your veggies and protein, and leaving out the sugar, chips, soda and other crap.

Okay, I didn’t mean to beat a dead horse there, and hopefully you understand how important it is to eat big and eat often.

Exercise Selection

As far as lifting, you asked what specific muscles will benefit you in football and how to train to get these muscles. Like I’ve said before on here, it’s not worth worrying about which muscles you need to develop - there are too many to keep track of.

But I can tell you..

Stick to compound movements that will build mass. If you learn to do these lifts and to do them with a lot of weight, the muscle mass on the “muscles you need” will come automatically. Think of these as your “Super-Lifts”

• Deadlifting variations
• Squat Variations
• Rowing
• Horizontal Pressing (like bench press)
• Overhead Pressing (like military) - Unless you’re a quarterback
• Weighted Pull-ups
• Power movements
  • Cleans
  • Push Press
  • Speed Pulls
  • Speed Squats
• Single leg movements
  • Bulgarian Splits Squats
  • Single Leg Squats
  • Lunges

(Notice I didn’t include biceps curls, lateral raises, or even core work here.)

This list of Super-Lifts should get you on the right track. Just don’t go out today and do all of them with a ton of weight right away - First, you need to learn the proper form before you can add these movements into your program. And once you do, don’t start getting heavy until you’ve practiced the movement to perfection. After all, it’s hard to lift anything when you’re injured and can’t move - Trust me, I’ve been there - it’s not cool.

And speaking of a program, make sure you get one drawn up for you by someone who knows what the heck they are doing.

If I were you, I’d print off this list of exercises right away, and take it to your strength coach - Ask him for help in teaching you these movements. He’ll probably be glad you asked and will be glad to help you - after all, it’s his job.

As for supplements, you’d be okay for now to just focus on getting your diet handled. After you do this, a quality protein powder will help you get the protein you need in between whole food meals. I’d also recommend adding a teaspoon (no more than this) of creatine monohydrate to a hot beverage (black coffee or tea) once a day.

Good luck with your career. Now go make yourself a big bowl of chicken and rice and start learning your lifts!

Technorati Tags: audio, diet, exercise philosophy, exercise selection, football, hypertrophy, Nutrition, Performance, strength training, supplements, wrestling

Doug I’m, 39 years, female, 5′ 2″, 224lbs - I started exercising and eating right about 1 month ago and I’ve lost 5lbs. I have a weight loss goal of 100lbs and that could take a year or more to achieve. So I thought that I could also have a fitness level goal as well. Do you think that participating (actually running) in a 5K in June 2009 is too much of a lofty goal? Thanks

Answer:

First, Happy New Year, and congrats on losing 5 pounds on your own in your first month of change!

And I want to commend you on:

1) Actually taking ACTION, in changing your eating and beginning some form of exercise – and sticking to it for an entire month.

I read somewhere recently that it takes between 30 – 90 days to cement a habit and lifestyle change. What’s even more interesting is that it takes the MOST willpower during the initial 30 days, while it actually becomes EASIER to keep a routine going, the longer you go. This means that on days 1-10, you really have to just grit your teeth and make yourself prepare salads, get to your workouts, avoid sweets, etc. But the longer you go, the more the habits become AUTOMATIC, so you do them without thinking.

2) The second thing I’d like to comment on is your use of the deadline – This is a concept I’ve yet to mention on this blog. The use of deadlines is a very effective tool in your goal-setting arsenal.

For example, have you ever had a project, test, or other chore that just HAD to be done by in a certain time period? We humans are pretty good about getting things accomplished when this is the case. Think about it – how many bills would get paid if there wasn’t an actual due date and the company just told you to send the money in when it’s convenient? If it were me, I’d probably be in debt with a credit score in the 300’s.. – Somehow the deadline makes you get off your butt and get stuff accomplished.

On the other side of the coin, have you ever had something that you know you needed to do, but just never seemed to get done? It’s sort something that’s always on your mind, but you never seem to be able to get it off your to do list?

Well the same thing applies to making LASTING OVERHAULS to your diet and exercise. (Which, by the way are the two keys to losing fat - despite what some late night infomercials want you to think).

Here, you’re using June 2009 for a specific 5K event – Make sure you know the exact date of the event and mark it in bold on your calendar. Somehow having this deadline for a time where we HAVE to be ready to run seems to have a profound effect on allowing us to accomplish our goals.

Now to answer your question..

YES!!

Okay, so you’ve probably figured out that weighing less makes it easier to run – It’s easy to see that with less weight on your body, it takes less energy to move. Also, it’s much easier on your joints, making it a more realistic option when choosing appropriate exercises.

So..

Traditionally, us trainers are taught in our certifications and textbooks that a realistic and safe rate of fat loss is approximately 1-2 pounds a week. Although I personally believe it is very realistic and perfectly healthy to lose weight even faster.

For the sake of this question, we’ll say your goal is to lose 2 pounds per week.

Now, to see how whether it’s realistic to make your goal, we just take the number of weeks until your race and multiply it by 2.

I don’t know the exact date of your race, but we’ll say June 20^th (a Saturday).

Starting next Monday, you have 21 weeks until your race.

So here’s what you do..

Set a 21 week goal to lose 42 pounds, and plan on weighing 179 by June 20th 2009. Unless you have some kind of injury, 179 should be plenty light enough to run in your 5K!!

Make sure to take this main goal, and break it up into a series of mini-goals along the way so that you make sure you’re staying on track. For example, after 11 weeks, you’d want to be down to 202 – After 6 weeks, 212, and so on.

If you’re not hitting your mini-goals, you know that you need to change something in order to get there.

So way to go in making a change for a month – Be sure to look around this website and others for tips on what changes you can make to your diet and exercise today in order to get you the fastest rate of fat loss.

More people are writing in, which is good, and I’d like to see some more comments – That will help me address the stuff that you need on here. So use the Ask Doug section and the comments section, and I’ll talk to you soon.

Technorati Tags: 5k, deadlines, fat loss, goal-setting, lifestyle change, running