Hi all,

This will be the last blog post on thebootcampeffect.com. For all new eye opening writings on fat loss, motivation, and bootcamp please visit Boot Camp U. I will be creating many more articles and have plans to come out with an extensive video exercise library for you in 2011.

Now let’s get to the good stuff as the results are in…

The Bootcamp Charity Drive has been over now for about a month and I would just like to thank you all for your participation – from referring a friend to jumping right into our kick ass classes, I was very happy to see the turn out and had the pleasure of donating the money the other day. $1000 will be a big help in granting a kid’s wish and I look forward to putting on more events like this in the future. Here’s my receipt to prove to you I wasn’t just making this all up.

What was this all about?….$50 was donated by me to the BC Chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation for every new signup during the month of October. If you would like to read more about this charity drive click here.

Thanks,
Josh Saunders
The Bootcamp Effect
Serving Langley, B.C.

Hey it’s your Friendly Neighbourhood Fitness Trainer,

And I have a message for you…

Stay away from shoes that have a pronounced heel lift!

Besides sucking for lifting weights, high heels and shoes with an elevated heel such as Nike Shox are biomechanically unsound and may lead to knee and back problems.

Yes, I’ll admit, I think women look great in heels and can still be worn in moderation, but everyday use is wrecking havoc on your body! And don’t be fooled by any multimillion dollar ad campaigns!

See, an elevated heel shifts your center of gravity forward and puts your pelvis in an anterior tilt. This causes the thigh muscles to overwork leading to strain on the tendons of the knee and the thigh, which leads to tight hip flexors and quads and strain on your tendons. One of the issues you’ll experience with an anteriorly tilted pelvis and tight hip flexors is back pain – it is personal training 101.

Fact: A recent study showed that elevated heels increase pressure inside the knee by 26%, which can lead to osteoarthritis over time.

The human foot was not designed to be elevated while walking. It was designed to walk barefoot and absorb impact across the entire foot on every step taken in a day. Deviating from this natural design causes problems to roll up the kinetic chain – ankles, knees, hips, back.

An elevated heel keeps that calf muscle of yours in a flexed position, which will shorten it. Having tight calves alone can lead to some issues – not to mention you wont be flexible enough to perform the “bread and butter” exercises such as squats and deadlifts that burn tons of calories.

During a normal gait (when you’re walking), the leg muscles both contract and relax (stretch), and you’re body was designed to do this perfectly! An elevated heel maintains the knee, hip, and low back in a flexed position and prevents these joints from getting stretched. Over time, this leads to muscle imbalances, which means stiffness, pain, and injury for you. Lower back strain is a major issue. And wearing heels is only making it worse for most women.

Random fact: Women have 4x more foot problems than men – you can probably by now guess a major culprit of this.

Now to the resistance training side of things: Most people want that tight, firm butt. Well, if you are wearing a show with an elevated heel this means you are creating tight hip flexors, and a weak butt because you can’t get a full contraction when walking or running, and when doing exercises such as squats and deadlifts where you need to really drive off the ground thru your heel, well that is not going to work very efficiently now. (And not having a strong butt will further perpetuate the cycle of knee and back pain).

In summary, just do your best to exercise (and play) in shoes that don’t have a pronounced heel lift. A 1 inch heel is much better than a 3 inch heel and great options for athletic shoes include converse all stars, nike frees, reebok travel trainers, or any flat training shoe.

So leave the calf raises for a fitness setting!

Josh Saunders
Founder, The Bootcamp Effect
Serving Langley, White Rock, and Surrey

Some individuals think Chiropractry is quack work. I disagree with that opinion. The practice of aligning the spine is of paramount importance to the efficiency in which signals are transduced from our minds to our muscles. Our spine has 3 curves naturally, and any deviance from this optimal structure will interrupt the flow of information and cause other muscles to overcompensate because of this.

There was good reason your mom told you to sit up straight even if she didn’t understand the principles of spinal anatomy. A crooked spine backs up optimal functioning in our bodies. That signal from your medulla oblongotta to your lungs to take that breath is now ever so slightly slower, and all that slouching and crouching is definitely not enablong room for your organs to function – think about all that oxygen you’re not getting into your lungs on this one. So stop suffocating yourself and sit up straight!

Proper posture is standing as tall and as straight as gravity will let you, while you are keeping your core tight and not letting your belly stick out. That’s the easy part, now let’s talk about sitting properly.

A large portion of the population has issues with sitting up straight. We have gotten our bodies so familiar with what bad posture feels like that we have to actively think to put our bodies into proper posture, and when we are there, our muscles tire, because they are not used to it. We begin to suffer from forward head posture, as we are always leaning in looking at computers or tvs and causing excessive flexion through the cervical portion of the spine.

What we are looking for is the straight line! I am talking ears, shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles all in a nice line. THINK ABOUT THIS LINE, BE THE LINE (you never thought you’d be told to be a line when you woke up this morning, but here we are…)

We are so accustomed to hunching over on computers and sitting for very long periods that I feel that we are devolving as a species! 1 million years from now, we will have hunch backs, small legs, and big brains (I guess it’s not all bad..)

A huge point to make about proper posture is the position of the scapula (shoulder blades). You always want them where they are supposed to be (retracted and depressed) and unfortunately they are not.

Always keep in mind how you are sitting, and get up, move around, and re-adjust from time to time. This is the perfect excuse to get out of some work at your desk…

Many people suffer from kyphosis or hunch back from tight chest muscles and weak back muscles. Often associated with this is tight hip flexors, weak hamstrings, and weak abs, and a tight lower back.

This is purely a byproduct of how we live our lives. Most of this can be attributed to all the sitting we do. They should start teaching school in a more dynamic environment where children are standing and able to move around and express their ideas on a giant white board that encompasses the room (it’s my blog, i’ll talk about what I want!) This way, we could help prevent bad habits from forming at an early age. (I was the biggest sloucher in school – I thought it was cool – i’m shaking my head disapprovingly).

Our ancestors, let’s say 10,000 years ago never suffered from this. They were strong from all the manual labor (i’m thinking farming), and riding horses with their abs braced and sitting up straight.

I’ll leave you with one more horrifying image…

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns or would like to experience a white rock bootcamp like no other, then feel free to leave a comment below.

Thanks
Josh Saunders
The Bootcamp Effect
Serving Langley, White Rock, and Surrey

This video is so great that it needed to be posted on both my websites. Will Smith has an insane outlook on life, where insane equals ridiculously sick, and right on the mark. I don’t want to tell you what to do, but this should be your outlook in life. The lesson is simple, never quit, never, never, never, ever quit. Remember, you really can get and create anything you want in life by just believing in yourself!

Don’t be realistic, be unrealistic – unrealistic people shape the world. It is all in your hands, the universe will get out of your way. If you tell yourself you can’t, you are right. If people say they can’t at bootcamp, I will make sure they do not ever say it again. Embrace the idea that you can be change, that you can be the model for others to aspire to. Commit yourself to your cause, your goal, and you will bend the world to your will. Make a choice, don’t be effected, be the cause…and always remember, “The only thing to fear is fear itself.”

I leave you with this quote from the movie Pursuit of Happiness
“Don’t ever let somebody tell you, you cant do something…
You got a dream, you got to protect it…
People can’t do something themselves, they want to tell you you can’t do it…
You want something go get it, period…”

Committed to your goals,
Josh Saunders
Langley Bootcamp Personal Trainer

Most women have aspirations of achieving that beautiful toned body that can be seen on many actresses and pictures in magazines.

But did you know, that most women will never achieve this goal because most will unfortunately stray from anything that builds muscle for fear of looking bulky!

You do not need to worry ever about gaining too much muscle because…

1. Muscle is sexy – Check out those quads on the left!!!
2. Women have 20x’s less Testosterone than men, which is the predominant muscle builder in the body.
3. You won’t eat enough. You need to be eating a lot of calories every day to put on any amount of size. It’s every skinny teenage boy’s dream to put on muscle mass and you won’t eat more than them, nor will you build more muscle than them. Which leads me to my last point…
4. The female body is not built to be like a mans (obvious statement of the day). Even if it was your goal to be the next female bodybuilding sensation, you would never achieve it without the assistance of hormone supplementation, such as steroids.

Building lean muscle is your key to MAINTAINING that trim and slim feminine body, and having you look the best you have EVER LOOKED! Muscle is highly metabolic and adding 1 pound of muscle burns around 50 calories more per day at rest. (Fat burns 9 calories per pound). When you put muscle on your body, and contain more lean tissue, you will burn extra calories (even when you sleep). What could be better than that?

You heard it here, resistance training (muscle building exercises) is MORE IMPORTANT THAN CARDIO!

You need to do what will give you the largest metabolic bang for you buck. Here’s your time guideline:

• If you have 30 minutes to exercise, do resistance training only (but don’t forget the warmup).
• If you have 45 minutes, throw in some short high intensity intervals, like running for 30 seconds, rest for 1 minute, repeat…
• If you have 60 minutes or more, now you can add cardio (10 minutes warmup of light cardio or dynamic exercises, 40 minutes of resistance training, 10-30 minutes of cardio, 5 minutes of stretching, and in that order).

Follow these guidelines, this is your bible to that sexy hollywood bod.

Any questions email me here.

Hi all,

Misconceptions have seemingly amassed mystical powers through years of crazy media marketing. Statements such as, “Lose 10lbs in 1 week”…”Lose 40lbs in 1 month”… and, “This vibrating, ab-twisting machine will melt away your fat and worries in seconds,” seem to leave individuals in a state of unrest when they are not able to match these results.

You see, these fitness fatloss myths are so ingrained in our heads that it is hard to shake this disbelief that they are not true. Remember, it is in my best interest to get you real results and keep you on track, so you can achieve those results.

So without further adieu and many conversations here are my 5 fitness fatloss mistakes…

1. I want to lose weight – The most common goal proclaimed by women involved in a fitness program. If you are overweight this is a great goal, but many individuals who are close to their natural, healthy weight should focus on another thing, and that is losing bodyfat. P.S. You can lose 10lbs of bodyfat and still weigh the same, but your body will look much fitter and healthier!!!!

Most people involved in a fitness program like a bootcamp, that involves high intensity cardio and resistance training, increases muscle while decreasing body fat, which will lead to a tighter, toned body. So if your clothes are fitting looser and you’re losing inches, you are on the right track!

During this time, bodyweight could increase or decrease. So, now you see why this “scale craze” is unfounded. You can improve your appearance, fitness levels, and elimitate unwanted fat in those trouble areas while relatively maintaining your bodyweight, so use the mirror as a guide to your progress and leave the scale alone.

2. I gained weight in the first month- I repeat, the numbers on the scale are not important in the short run! I hear way too many women concerned with a bodyweight fluctuation of 2 or 3 pounds or even not losing enough weight in the first month. There are many factors that account for this minor gain and none of these have anything to do with getting fatter. Water weight for instance is a culprit of these differences and has nothing to do with a permanent weight gain. Remember, it is the long run changes that matter.

3.  I’m doing the _____ diet – Way too many women get involved in diets. Let’s review what a diet implies…..deprivation aka starvation and an end-date. You know why there are so many diets? Because they don’t work! They are a short term answer to a long term problem, and involve giving up your favorite foods, enduring intense hunger and putting you in an unstable state of mind.

Adopt a healthy lifestyle and eat when you want and seriously cut the grapefruit, cabbage soup, atkins, southbeach, or whatever diet is the new trend. Those end dates of those diets are killing you as your 1 week of rewarding yourself after your diets with your favorite foods, turns into 1 month, which turns into 10. Small changes will equal the big change so avoid these crash diets, embrace portion control, and enjoy healthy foods.

P.s. These include diet pills – stay away – there is no magic bullet. You cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind!

4.  I’ll have the salad – Greens are a great source of healthy nutrients, and salads are an excellent option, as long as there are no bacon bits, croutons, or massive amounts of dressing – this meal is loaded in calories and won’t make you full!!! Salads can offer variety as long as you keep them clean and keep the bacon and fatty dressing away. Adding a chicken breast or piece of fish to this will make a complete and healthy meal.

5.  I drink alcohol - When you consume alcohol, your body uses it for fuel first, and delays fat burning BIG TIME. Alcohol also contains almost twice as many calories as carbs and proteins. And what’s worse, these are “empty” calories, meaning that they provide no nutritional value.

When you down a few beers, your inhibitions are also squashed, making it more likely for you to cheat on your diet…Also, despite all those calories you are consuming, alcohol actually increases your appetite.

Every time you booze up, you also decrease your body’s total testosterone level. Testosterone is a powerful fat burner and muscle builder for men AND women. The less testosterone you have, the slower your muscles build while working out, and the slower your metabolism will be. And the slower your metabolism is, the harder it is to lose weight, no matter how disciplined you are in the gym.

Alcohol also wrecks havoc on your internal organs, including your stomach and liver, which are important to keep in good health if you want to see fat loss progress. If your stomach isn’t working at its peak, your foods will be digested less efficiently, which means more will be stored as fat. Your liver needs to be in prime condition because that’s the organ that turns fat into energy. If you must drink some brews with your friends, try to stick to light beer. The diet damaging effects of alcohol are still there, but it won’t be as bad because there are fewer calories.

Bottom line, if you DO drink, control the amounts and drink only on rare occasions. I’ve known so many women who workout almost everyday, watch what they eat, then go out drinking on the weekends and wonder where their bodyfat comes from….It’s the BOOZE!

So what should you do…

In order to lose fat at a fast rate, you need to create a large caloric deficit in a relatively short period of time.  Recall, a pound of fat is 3,500 calories.  Want to lose a pound of fat?  Then you’ll need to be 3,500 calories in the hole. That’s not just burning 3,500 cals, that’s having a deficit after all your food intake! Want to lose Five pounds of fat? Make that 17,500 calories.  There’s simply no getting around the physics of this matter. And unfortunately, drastic reductions in caloric intake will only cause your body to fight back against your dieting efforts, shutting down metabolism and holding on to body fat as a starvation protection response ,also known as the dreaded starvation mode.

Slow and steady = permanent fat loss…

Enter your predicament, you can’t lose fat fast enough without creating a massive caloric deficit, and you simply can’t create this deficit with a quick shift in your eating habits to starvation mode.

Sure, you may have known someone who has lost a lot of “weight” in a short amount of time or watched an episode of The Biggest Loser (see my next blog). But weight loss and fat loss are 2 critically different animals. Want to lose weight in a short period of time. You can, and here will be your results…

1. A lot of water loss – that’s bad
2. A lot of muscle loss – that’s bad
3. A bit of fat loss – it’s not all bad

And of course, a metabolism so haggered that the moment you decide to get off your “diet” and return to your normal eating habits, all your “weight loss” and then some is gone and fat will be back at even faster rate.

So Stay strong, Stay hungry, Stay motivated…

Your Bootcamp Instructor,

Josh

Ok, this has been bothering me lately….

It’s called the STARVATION RESPONSE and it’s the #1 reason why you are overweight and can’t lose weight even though you don’t eat and exercise.

See, you can bust your butt all you want at the gym or at bootcamp and you won’t lose any weight until you fix this, and start eating 5-6 small meals throughout the day.

So what is the starvation response?

It’s your body’s internal mechanism that keeps you alive when you don’t eat anything. It’s how people survive in the jungle or the desert without any food for days. It’s how our ancestors who lived in caves with clubs and chased masterdons survived because it was bloody hard to have a constant supply of ancient elephant meat available.

The starvation response actually slows down your rate of burning calories because it senses food is scarce and does this because if you keep burning calories at a normal rate you will not have any energy to do anything. This means you could be working out hard for an hour and burning very few calories.

This is your basic prehistoric survival mechanism that is still functioning in us today. Sure, we have no need for it now in today’s westernized world, where there seems to be a grocery store on every corner.

Slowing down your metabolism like this will never make you lose weight in the long term. You can never starve yourself to lose fat! You may lose weight initially, but at some point , when you start eating normal amounts of food, you will gain it all back.

So do yourself a favor, if this sounds like you….You have been gaining weight and have that stubborn fat in those trouble spots, then you are most likely suffering from the starvation response and need to reset your metabolism.

Here’s how

• eat small portions and eat frequently (2-3 hours in between meals)
• eat over 1200 calories a day
• NEVER SKIP BREAKFAST
• consume protein in every meal
• eat 4-6 meals per day

Now this may scare you, and you may even gain weight initially from the extra calorie consumption. DO NOT WORRY! This is because your metabolism is slow and is not used to the extra food. After a month of eating like this and doing exercises such as squats and pushups, your metabolism will be higher and prepare you for a lifetime of losing fat the proper way.

Get in the habit of making changes, you may be reading this article because you are unhappy with your appearance and need a change. Something is wrong if you are exercising 3-5x/week and trying to lose weight, and getting no results. So make this change!

The Starvation Response is a life-saving mechanism and it will destroy your efforts trying to lose fat because your body has no idea how to differentiate between “dieting” and “starving”. Once the response has been activated it becomes almost impossible to lose weight, so you should NEVER severely drop your calorie intake. By being a starvation response victim, you will lose muscle, which is the worst thing for your metabolism. And you have to keep that metabolism high!!!

This is why it is much easier to lose weight if you previously ate too much as opposed to too little.

Disclaimer: This rant was meant for those who eat 1 or 2 meals per day. If you are currently eating 4-6 meals per day then carry on with what you are doing. This is one of the biggest reasons why Moms struggle with fat loss. If you have any questions, you know where to reach me.

Dedicated to your success,

Josh Saunders

Langley Personal Trainer

Dear Belly Fat,

We shouldn’t have stayed together so long. Now, not only do I find you annoying, but the sight of you makes me hate you now. Infact, I want a divorce. You can keep the KFC fries and gravy, our favorite groove in the couch, and the receipts to the gym we never went to.

I mean, what were we thinking in the first place? We knew it would never work out. I want to have a long life void of heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol, and a myriad of other diseases. You found me when I had a moment of weakness and you latched on and took advantage of me. And I am better than that and I deserve more!

Best yet, I found this new crowd and I think I am going to start spending time with them for a while and see what happens.

With guarantees of fat loss, healthy meal plans and ideas, and a barrage of full body exercises, the divorce should be over in 6 months. And I don’t even think we should visit either, not even for Christmas for egg nog and cookies.

I know it’s cold, but I want to start thinking what’s best for me and you’re just not a part of that anymore.

I’ll send you a picture,

Future Bootcamper

I hear a few excuses, here are some of my favorites and the reasons why you should ignore them and get moving:

1. I’m not motivated. Have you ever had problems pushing yourself to attend a fitness class or a gym? Well, have you ever had an extremely positive trainer on your side, who likes to have fun and crack jokes, raise his voice to raise your energy, and bring you fun games and themes on a weekly basis.  And if that doesn’t do it for you I’ll fill your inbox with get your ass to bootcamp comments .
2. I have no time. With my bootcamp workouts you are in an out in an hour 3x’s/ week. We conclude each class with stretching, but you are more than welcome to lay out on the mats and stretch out for an extra 5 after class.
3. I have a bad diet. With The Bootcamp Effect you will be doing total body workouts and will be building lean muscle. This will elevate your metabolism, so that even if you make a slight improvement in your diet, you will see results. Don’t know what to eat? You will get serious results if you follow my 30 day meal plan that I give to each member of the bootcamp.
4. I want to workout with my friends. Well what a weird thing to say to me. I say this, REFER THEM, get them in for a free week and if they stay on you will get HALF OFF your next month. And then you guys can have a cheat meal together after class and bond even more over the exercises you “hate, but love” the most (MAX: 3 cheat meals per week).
   
5. I suck at commitment. Well, I’m amazing at it. You miss a class no problem – it happens – you may be sore, you may have slept in. But if you miss 2 in a row- I’ll email you saying I missed ya and you’re paying for results and this isn’t a big box gym where we want you to slip through the cracks and keep paying.
6. I have tried everything to lose the weight so far and failed. Did you try it with a fitness professional who does this full time and then goes to the gym on his own time to make sure he walks the talk?
7. I had a trainer before. Oh, did you try a bootcamp? Did they give you a nutrition plan, food journals to fill out before you eat for your first week to shock you into thinking about what you eat? Were these individuals extremely fit and understood strength and conditioning principles?
8. But I can’t afford it. I will give half off your next month for referrals. So refer 1 person a month and you’re in business. Think of people at the tanning salon, your chiropractor, massage therapist, neighbours, hockey moms, etc. They are all people that will join you in the battle against fat loss!
9. I’m too old and have joint issues. I’ve got 2 words for you!  Soft floors. Easy on the joints and if your body still can’t cope with the compression forces then I will modify the exercise for you. This is no exercise in a parking lot. Trust me – I know the feeling of trying to exercise with injuries –  it sucks!
10. I like my personal training sessions where I don’t exercise hard and talk about life. Hahahah, you’re alright, but do you really want results? This is the year 2010. Group fitness is the economical solution for everyone that wants the guidance , knowledge, and support that a fitness professional provides. Seeing a trainer such as myself 3x’s per week and doing the exercise that makes sense to your goal (such as full body, compound exercises) will see you achieve your goal in a timely manner.
11. I go to group fitness classes already. I don’t consider going to these classes as being a part of a fitness program. They won’t keep you accountable if you decide to not come, they will not modify exercises personally for you on a regular basis. They won’t write a newsletter and blog to send you all the information you need to succeed.

Committed to your success,

Josh Saunders

Have you noticed what has happened to us as a society these days? We want everything and we want it right now!

What adds to this dilemma is the constant bombardment of advertising in our face 24/7. Take fat loss for instance, we have informercials, Valerie Bertinelli, Chuck Norris, fat burning pills,the shopping network.

I can regularly turn on the tube at 5am and you know what I see?…

FITNESS INFORMERCIALS are EVERYWHERE! These advertisements are in our face making us feel fat, making us believe it is an easy fix, making us start to believe that weight loss can happen fast…Much faster than the years of bad eating habits and sedentary behaviour that packed on those pounds. See this has us convinced we can be slimmer by next week.

Well, is it possible?

Fast weight loss is OUT.  It’s unhealthy due to crazy diet restrictions! It can’t last and the results are not sustainable, as your body will start to store fat as a result of the starvation response. What we want is FAT LOSS. Fat loss that comes from doing total body exercises, working hard, and eating healthy amount of nutrients (this can still be fast too).

See with quick fix, magic bullet solutions in a bottle, and wrapped up in a nice foldable put under your bed diet, your metabolism is going to slow down because you’re not eating enough, This on one hand will make you lose weight in the short term. But now your metabolism is slower and you are not going to burn as much fat and so the frustrating cycle continues!

Oh, did I mention the stress this causes you – which further perpetuates the cycle? And now your on that metaphorical treadmill and not getting anywhere with your fat loss.

This is what we call a yo-yo diet in the fitness biz. The constant battle of weight loss/weight gain – dammit body! Make up your mind!

Your body is just doing what it is programmed to do and that’s adapt to the situation.

So here’s what works:

• Raise that metabolism through the roof!
• Slightly decrease the amount of food you eat per day – but still eat 5-6 small meals!
• Cut out the crap – you know what I’m talking about and snack on veggies!
• Be part of a group where fitness becomes a routine/lifesyle and stick with it. That’s right no month in – month out. Try 6 months, stick to it – die on that mat before you give up! (mindset mentality – not literally)

That fat loss may seem slow on that week to week basis – but add that up over 6 months and you’re looking at a nice chunk of fat off your body and a renewed and revitalized healthy outlook on life (priceless????? think about it!)

I always ask my bootcamp members this one question…

HOW BAD DO YOU WANT IT?