Fantone Fitness

Fantone Fitness Fun Fitness Fact # 6

 

What is Fantone Fitness?

The primary focus of Fantone Fitness is to reinvent the fitness industry and create personal training that is designed to elevate personal trainers to professional status by training, mentoring and nurturing young trainers to become professionals and in turn encouraging them to mentor new trainers to create a cycle of teamwork and a community of supportive fitness professionals. Fantone Fitness is dedicated to improving the quality of this unregulated field. In so creating a “quality over quantity” attitude, we will better serve our community and ourselves.

Plan, to succeed!

Fantone Fitness Fun Fitness Facts #5 “Plan to Succeed”

Have a plan of what you’ll eat today. Don’t wait until its a last minute decision and you end up eating “Fast Food”.  If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Eat healthy.

Love Handles

Fantone Fitness Fun Fitness Facts #4

Fantone Fitness Superman

Who do you think you are, Superman?

Extend yourself! That’s right, for a great lower back exercise you must extend yourself.

I call it the Superman or Human Cannon Ball.

Kneel behind a 55 cm stability ball and stay tall, keeping the ball low in front of you. Extend from the knees so you begin to lean forward on the ball. Straighten out your legs and balance with your hips resting on the ball. Reach behind you with straight arms, palms facing up. Remember, the ball’s job is to throw you down on the floor. Be ready, don’t let it. If you’re having trouble balancing at first, you can put your feet against a wall for stability.

Ready? Once you’re in position, hips on the ball, extended out over it, lift your torso up a few inches by arching your lower back. This exercise feels good to most people because it instantly brings circulation to the lower back muscles, namely the erector spinae.

Hold your position for 30 seconds to start and work your way up to a minute. Here is a good time to add in a posture check by gently squeezing your shoulder blades together and reaching back with your hands, pulling your shoulders away from your ears.  Keep your eyes looking down so you don’t stick out your chin, Ahhh, feels good. If it doesn’t, don’t do it and go get a trainer to help you.

This is a safe low-back exercise, but remember start easy and build up your time gradually.

Have fun Super-person!

Fantone Fitness Fun Fitness Fact #3 How to get a six-pack.

#3. People always ask me “how do you get a six-pak?” The truth is everyone has the six-pack muscles. They are already a part of every body. You couldn’t move properly without them. The problem isn’t in the muscle, it’s in the “stuff” that’s covering the muscle. You guessed it, “body-fat!” So the goal is to reduce body-fat between the skin and those lovely abs.  How to do that? Ahh, the million dollar question. If I had a buck for every time…anyway. 

Here’s my “plan”. That’s what I call it. Time to get back on the “Plan”

Eat clean. Eat real foods, not processed. Soda is processed, get used to drinking water. Just do it! Eat single ingredient foods like vegetables, fruit, lean meats, eggs or egg whites. Eat nuts and seeds in moderation (and if you can’t do moderation, leave the nuts alone). If you are vegetarian, you know where to get your protein. Eat foods as they come from nature, not scientifically engineered products. And do not add salt! You’ll get used to it.You know this stuff. You keep hearing it over and over, but you don’t want to believe it. Well, it’s true. Eat healthy and exercise at least moderately, and I guarantee you will lose body-fat. If you do, those lovely six-pak muscles will be working their way to the surface. Maybe slowly, but one day, Pow! There they are. You’ve got a six-pak.

More for your core!

Quadruped

Kneel down and get on all fours. Hence the name Quadruped. Place your hands directly under your shoulders and keep your elbows unlocked. Check to see that your knees are directly under your hip sockets. This may not happen automatically. Keep your neck long from the back, you will be looking straight down.  In this position, draw your stomach muscles up toward your spine, without moving your back. These muscles are your Transverse Abdominals  very important muscles. They are your inner core. This exercise is designed to strengthen them so pay close attention to what is happening there. This position in the basic Quadruped.

From here, reach out with your right arm and back with your left leg, like a pointer dog. Make sure your abdominals stay firm and don’t arch your back. Thumb is pointing up and arm about 45% away from your head. Good hold that for 5 seconds, then place those limbs down and repeat on the other side.  Do each side 5 tiimes. Making sure your back does not arch and your stomach muscles remain engaged the entire time. That is the quadruped.

You are a Superstructure. Build your own “Pillar of Strength”

Pillar

1 : a firm upright support for a superstructure.  That’s one of the definitions of “pillar” in The Merriam-Webster dictionary

In order to strengthen your core you must work the Transverse Abdominals. The side plank pictured here is one of your core building tools.

The Front Plank is probably the most important exercise you can do for your core. Both the side plank and the front plank can be modified to assist those whose wrists hurt planking on your hand, by planking on the elbow. Do these exercises consistently and “Build your pillar of strength!”

Start by holding the front plank as long as you can without low-back pain. The abs should support this, not the back. Build up to one or two minutes. The side plank might be a little tougher, so start by holding for 15 seconds and build up to 30, 45 and finally 60 seconds.

I love the rain!

Rain is Motivating to me!

Push up/Pull up Kick-ass Cardio!

I love the rain, NOT!  But as always, I make the best of everything and that means finding a way to love the rain. For me anything that makes me want to stay inside, makes me want to be in the gym. So, that means today is a “Get to the gym” day. There is so much fun to be had at the gym. Pull ups are the most challenging, oh and push ups.  I’ve got it. As many pull ups as you can do, then as many push ups as you can do followed by 10 minutes on the bike. Then as many as you can again,(push ups/pull ups), then 10 minutes on the step machine (it’s good for you). Again with the push ups/pull ups and then on to the elliptical for 10 minutes. Once more as many push ups and pull ups as you can. Takes about 45 minutes and you’ve got your strength training and great cardio, all in one workout.  Then stretch for 10 minutes, Ahhhhhh, feels good doesn’t it. And remember you can modify pull ups by doing weight assisted pull ups or even pull downs. (if you can do even a few real pull ups, DO them).  Have fun!

Kettlebells

Have you had your kettlebells today. It’s just like eating your Wheaties. Kettle bell as defined by “Wikipedia,”

“The kettlebell or girya (Russian: гиря) is a cast iron weight (resembling a cannonball with a handle) used to perform ballistic exercises that combine cardiovascular, strength and flexibility training.^[1]”

So, once you’ve tried Kettlebells, you’ll never be the same.

Start of a new season

Start of a new season.

Every once in a while a landmark day or date comes around and I always think it creates new opportunity. Labor Day is like that. Signifying the end of the season of Summer. For me, this is a sad thought because I LOVE Summer! I like it hot and yes, even humid. Crazy I know, but that’s me. Though it is a bit sad, if you know me, you know I make the best of everything. My way of enjoying the end of the season I love is to use this landmark date as a starting point. It’s time to get busy and get back to work getting in the best shape of my life.

Won’t you join me in the new season?  Let’s get back on the “Plan” and back in the gym. Or if you like, we can get outside and enjoy some workouts in the park while it’s still warm enough. Back on the “Plan” for me means, stop eating whatever I want whenever I want and focus. Focus, yes that’s how I see the end of this season, a good chance to re-focus on fitness.

There, I feel much better, don’t you?