Bijai Fitness Made Easy Video

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Healthy cooking with Randy Edwards

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Total Body Magazine "Pilot Episode"

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On a "diet"? Take pictures each week

 I try to teach my clients not use the word diet and to stay off the scales. The word diet should be associated with your daily food intake at any given time. Americans tend to associate the word diet with just losing weight. Many of the diet plans out in the market today will lead to “yoyo” dieting. That is when someone loses weight only to gain it back later often gaining more than they lost. If a person wishes to lose weight and keep it off they will need to make a lifestyle change to their "nutrition plan". Most diet programs restrict calories too much. If you are not getting enough calories your body thinks it is being starved. It goes into starvation mode and starts holding on to body fat. The body starts feeding on lean body mass like muscle. This is why people wonder why they don't look the same at a given weight as they did when they were younger. They have dieted away lean body mass and not body fat. (refer to my "How many calories do you need" blog for your calorie needs)  This is why the scale is a bad way to judge your progress. A scale can only tell a person how much weight they have lost rather than how much body fat has been lost. I have had clients tell me they don't care what they lose they just want to lose weight. Here is the problem with that- muscle weighs more than fat. Compare your muscle to a ten pound weight in a gym made out of iron. Now think of fat as styrofoam. How much styrofoam would it take to equal the ten pounds the iron weight weighs? So do you want to lose that big pile of styrofoam, i.e.: fat or the ten pounds of iron, i.e.: muscle? Dieting away muscle leaves you with a soft look because you have not lost the body fat you wanted to. Most people think it is age related but it comes down to not enough calories. When you don't get enough calories you slow your body’s furnace down otherwise known as your metabolism. When a person stops the caloric restriction they usually gain more body fat back because they have slowed down their metabolism. Hence "yoyo dieting". Once you get your caloric needs figured out how can you check your progress if you don't weigh yourself on the scale? The very best way is to have a body fat measurement done. If you belong to a gym there should be someone on staff that can do the measurement for you. I also realize that some people just don't have access to someone who can do this. An easy solution is to take a picture once a week. Take the photo on the same day of the week as close to the same time of day as you can. I suggest when you first wake up in the morning. Take a photo wearing shorts and no shirt. Women can take one in a bikini, bra and panties, panties and no bra or shorts and tight shirt. The pictures are for you only so the lack of clothing isn't an issue. Losing body fat is a slower process than a crash diet. You see yourself everyday and it may not seem like you are losing body fat. By taking a photo you can compare photos and determine if you are losing fat or not. When you have lost the body fat you want to lose just go back to the calorie calculator in my "how many calories do you need" blog and figure out how many calories you need to maintain. Losing body fat instead of your lean body mass will leave you leaner, harder and happier. If you need any help figuring your calories out or designing a nutrition plan that will work for you email me at randy30_1999@yahoo.com or on Facebook. I want to give a shout out to Amy Ballard. Congratulations on your success so far. Keep it up. You are doing a great job! 

The Foam Roller Might Just Get Rid of Your Pain

Before I tell you the benefits of a foam roller I should probably explain what a foam roller is for those of you who have no idea what I am talking about.  A foam roller is exactly what it sounds like- a roller made out foam. Some pain can be alleviated by laying a part of the body (usually the legs) on top of the foam roller and allowing the body weight to gently add pressure and roll up and down or side to side. It's the same principle as a self massage.  Rolling the muscles will make then more pliable and stretch them better than any massage can. It may be uncomfortable in the beginning but over time the the muscles will begin to release more and more. It takes very little time but it does require a lot of consistency. Eventually there will be less over all tension in the muscles if you continue to use the roller. Releasing tension in the muscles reduces scar tissue and in certain situations can help rid you of back pain, knee pain and much more. There are many places you can purchase a foam roller. I get mine from www.performbetter.com. Some local sporting goods stores and physical therapy offices offer the foam rollers for sale. If you have been living with pain and it's not a joint, bone, disk, connective tissue,etc...issue, the foam roller just might help you. It is my opinion the foam roller should be a part of everyone's exercise program. Just a few minutes four or five times a week will increase flexibility and decrease tension in the muscles leading to a better quality of life.

Source:
Fitlink.com

How do you know as a parent if your child is being trained right?

I began working out back in 1976 at the age of 12. There wasn't a lot of information available on working out at that time but luckily my good friend Dan Lewis had his big brother's weight training book written by Franco Columbo. Franco is not only a former world record holder in the bench press but he is also a former Mr. Olympia and Arnold Schwarzenegger's close friend and biggest rival in bodybuilding. So at the age of 12, armed only with Franco's book and what little bit of knowledge Dan's 17 year old brother had passed down to us, we began weight training. The Internet has now changed all that for kids  who are looking to begin weight training. I don't think one person could read every article on weight training that comes up in a Google search if they started at birth and read until they were 100 years old. The problem with too much information is there are far too many conflicting views. It is so easy for a child (or even a parent) to get bad information from the Internet when it come to fitness. If you are not in the fitness business you don't have any philosophies established to know good information from bad. You may think your kid is in good hands because you have hired a trainer but just like any other profession in the world there are good trainers and bad trainers. Is every mechanic you have been to in your life good? Of course not. Just because the trainer your kids are working with has fancy letters after their name like PHD, MD, MS, or ME doesn't necessarily make them a good trainer. I have a masters in kinesiology and that qualifies me to train and coach kids in weight training and performance training as much as it would qualify me to perform surgery on someone. What does qualify me is years of experience and education specifically geared towards young people. I have seen trainers with REALLY fancy letters at the end of their name do exercises with young teenagers that could cause problems in their development and could have caused serious injury. Kids' bodies are constantly developing and due to this their spines and joints are not ready for some exercises and movements. I realize that if a trainer is certified or has fancy degrees you should be able to trust them working with your kids but please don't make that mistake. Not all certifications are equal in what they really teach. Getting certified as a trainer is not hard as one might think. I wish I had a formula I could give to parents that would tell you how to determine if a trainer or performance coach is good or bad, but I don't. I know this causes a dilemma for those of you who are parents because you want to do what's best for your kids. While I don't have that magic formula I do have a couple of suggestions that will make it a little bit easier for you to make good decisions. Organizations like the National Strength and Conditioning Association, or NSCA have seminars all over the country. Many of these types of organizations also offer webinars. Webinars are more cost effective than the traditional seminar and don't require investing the same amount of time.You can watch from the comfort of your home and there are webinars offered regularly that deal just with training young people. I will give a couple of examples of these organizations at the end of this article. I would like to note that I have no affiliation with either group other than some continuing education hours I have received. It will only take a few hours of your time to contact one of these organizations and /or participate in a seminar or webinar. Doing this type of research will not only give you a better understanding of performance training and weight training but it just might prevent an injury from happening that could affect your child  for the rest of their life .Using the information these organizations have to offer will aid you in making better choices for your children when it comes to trainers and training. The NSCA and www.performbetter.com are just two reputable organizations that I would recommend but there are many more out there. These are the two I have had personal experience with and have found their information helpful. I encourage you to learn as much as possible, but remember that even a little bit of knowledge can go a long way when choosing the right trainer/coach for your child.

NSCA Youth Training Symposium 
http://www.nsca-lift.org/Youth2011/
www.performbetter.com

HCG Diet

Before the reader goes any further I want it to be known that the following article is based upon my observations, and  experiences the past 26 years. I have not done any kind of scientific research to back my opinions. I find it amusing that something bodybuilders have been using for years to give their body's natural testoterone production a boost after a cycle of anabolic steroids is suddenly a weight loss miracle. HCG is clinically used to induce ovulation and treat ovarian disorders in women.  Being in the gym business for 26 years I have seen fads come and go. I couldn't tell you how many fad diets and supplements I have see over that period but I can tell you the HCG diet is a fad. The fact that a person on the HCG diet has to start taking in only 500 calories a day the first week or two is enough for me to raise an eyebrow, but being in the gym business I will usually keep an open mind. I have yet to see anyone on the HCG diet take off weight because they are taking HCG. There will be some initial body fat loss until the body thinks it is being starved, and then the lean body mass will start coming off. This is just an observation but the only people I have seen harden up on HCG are people I knew for a fact were on a proper nutrition plan and never did the 500 calorie a day part of the program. This leads me to believe it was their exercise and nutrition program and not the HCG. I think Cher put it best way back in the late 80's and early 90's when she coined the phrase, "If it came in a bottle, everybody would have a great body". Does it not make sense if there was a miracle diet, nobody would be over weight? The best way to lose body fat and get the body you want is proper nutrition and a good exercise program. Don't be taken in by fad diets. I can help you with a good nutrition plan, you just have to put the exercise time in.