An inside look at whats inside a personal trainers gym bag(not just any trainers bag, mine).
Gym bag essentials:
Here are some things you should have in your gym bag, ready to use in all your workouts.


  1. Stop watch: Keeping track of your rest periods is essential to building an effective workout routine. Also keeping track of the time under tension. This is the amount of time that your muscle is actively in a contraction. I regularly use a stop watch during my personal training. The time of gauging your rest periods based on the length of the commercial on the gym t.v are over!

  2. Workout log/journal: You need to have a plan for your workouts. This is where you will keep track of your workout routines, and quickly and easily be able to reference your past achievements and personal records. Once you are familiar with the equipment you are working with have all the exercises listed you are going to do, and fill in the weight and reps you were able to complete as you go. I keep a workout journal for each and every personal training session. I also track body composition and other measurements in each customized paper journal and a state of the art online journal accessible to my clients.

3. Heart rate monitor: A good heart rate monitor is an amazing tool for your to know exactly what your heart rate is at all times during your workout. A good one is programmable for gender, age, height, and weight. This data is used to automatically give you your proper heart rate training zones. Most will also include calorie count as well. Using a heart rate monitor is the only sure way to know you are in optimal performance training, and fat buring zones while weight training.  Most cardio equipment will also pick up your heart rate automatically so you don't have to hold onto the hand sensors! I use and recommend Polar monitors. Click here to visit Polar's main website.

  4. Workout gloves: gloves will not only make handling weights more comfortable, but also help prevent your hands from slipping from sweat.

5. Wrist straps: There will come a point when you won't be able to support heavy weight resistance without supplementing your grip with good wrist straps. I use and recommend Versa Gripps. Check them out by clicking here.

  6. MP3 Player: Working out with an MP3 player not only helps you get in the zone with whatever kind of music you workout best to, but also minimizes distraction from chatter and other sounds around you while you workout. The latest studies indicate that those who listen to music during workouts burn more calories!

  7. Water bottle: Having a water bottle, especially a larger one to keep by your side during your workout will do a number of things. It will help you know how much water you are consuming(make sure you are drinking enough). It will help you adhere to your rest periods by not having to take trips to the gyms water fountain, and on those busy gym times, help prevent someone from jumping in your spot while you are at the drinking fountain.

Here are some of the top food/beverage items to avoid if you are trying to lose fat weight.

1. Soda
Soda is nothing but calories from simple sugars and high fructose corn syrup. Soda supplies a high concentration of empty calories. An empty calorie does nothing to supply the body with essential nutrients.

2. The Snack Aisle
Avoid fried potato chips and, in general, anything you’ll find in the snacks aisle at your local grocery store.  Fried potatoes and fried snacks of any kind contain large amounts of fat, salt and unhealthy oils. Furthermore, it’s easy to overeat when it comes to chips. The serving size of many snacks is really small, but people tend to have a lot more than one serving size.

3.  Gourmet Coffee
Gourmet coffee can easily contain as much or more calories than an entire meal, yet without any of the nutritional benefits. Instead of coffee, try switching to tea. It has caffeine as well, but none of the negative weight gaining effects. If you are looking for the boost of caffeine there are pill forms you can get from most nutrition stores.

4. Alcohol
Alcohol contains a large amount of concentrated, refined sugar, even if it doesn’t taste like it. Alcohol itself contains a ton of calories (about 7 per gram). Drinking alcohol, especially in excessive amounts, is dehydrating and can lead to overeating. 

5. White Bread
Highly refined carbohydrates, such as found in white bread, are treated like sugar by the body. By the time white bread gets to your table, most of its nutrients have been bleached out. All the processing and preservatives are terrible for your body and the high carbohydrates are bad for your weight.

6. Starchy Vegetables
Eating too many starchy vegetables is bad for weight loss. This is because your body treats them like sugar, causing a rise in blood level and making it harder on your metabolism to process them, and thus for you to lose weight. Starchy vegetables include, potatoes, yams, pumpkins and squash.

7. Fruit Juice
Most fruit juices contain mostly high fructose corn syrup and very little actual juice. Look for available real fruit juice options or make fruit juice at home from raw fresh fruit. Alternatively choose to eat fresh whole fruit and drink water. 

8. Baked Sweets/Pastries
Cakes, cookies and any kind of processed candy bar is definitely something you’ll want to stay away from if you’re trying to lose weight. Baked pastries are made with tons of flour, butter and milk, all of which contain a lot of fat and cholesterol.

9. Red Meat
While red meats have a lot of nutrients, like iron and zinc, which are essential to your health, they give them to you at a high price. Red meat, especially when grilled and slathered in sauce, contains lots of calories and fats. Try to have red meat only once every few weeks, and switch to fish and poultry instead.

Original article source

With obesity as one of our top killers, it is no surprise that Americans are scrambling for any kind of weight loss help. Unfortunately, in this eternal struggle to be thin and healthy, people end up looking for salvation in all the wrong places. Instead of relying on exercise and following the credo "everything in moderation," we turn to miracle solutions, diet supplements, and calorie deprivation. The results are the following bogus diets that may work in the short term, but may also cause severe harm to your body over time.

1. The Cabbage Soup Diet

The title is self explanatory: the dieter's survival is based on a constant intake of cabbage soup. Even on the Cabbage Soup Diet website, red flags are evident. The first being the opening words on the homepage, warning that the diet should not be used long term and that followers of the Cabbage Soup Diet have felt light-headed, weak, and have suffered a lack in concentration. The second red flag appears in the suggested seven day menu. Each day, the dieter is instructed to "stuff themselves" with a different food group. How about a little "moderation?" The third warning lies in the "Health" section of the website, warning the dieter that the diet lacks "complex carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, and minerals," all of which are necessary for your body to function properly.

2. The Grapefruit Diet

The Grapefruit Diet functions the same way as the Cabbage Soup Diet; both are only successful because they deprive the body of calories, but at the same time leave out essential nutrients that keep you alive and healthy. The Grapefruit Diet claims to allow the dieter to eat a wide array of foods that they would not think possible, but as long as you follow your meal with half a grapefruit, you will lose weight. This claim is both startling and far-fetched. As predicted, and mentioned on the website, the Grapefruit Diet is dangerous. The Grapefruit Diet website suggests that the diet may lead to dehydration due to the low amount of calories and high levels of caffeine involved. The restrictions in this diet also make it an incredibly difficult and unlikely regimen to follow. However just adding grapefruit regularly to a standard moderate diet can still help with weight management.

3. The Hallelujah Diet

Developed by Rev. George Malkmus, the Hallelujah Diet is mainly comprised of organic raw fruits and vegetables, and the miracle worker of this diet: barley juice. Because the Hallelujah Diet strictly prohibits meat and dairy, the barley juice is meant to fill that vitamin and protein void with its high nutrition content. While not necessarily depriving the dieter of essential nutrients, the Hallelujah Diet's highly restrictive nature makes this diet hard to live on and therefore, not ideal.


4. The Martha's Vineyard Detox Diet

The regimen alone explains why this diet is both dangerous and bogus.  The diet is meant for the short term, "lose 21 pounds in 21 days," where the dieter survives on highly nutritious cocktails, a short list of raw vegetables, and soup. According to the itinerary for the Martha's Vineyard Detox Diet Retreat, dieters enjoy a breakfast of "detoxification cocktails." Hourly cocktails follow until lunch where an assortment of raw juices are available. Dinner is slightly  more filling, with the option of nutritious soup. What can be described as a mild eating disorder, surviving on nutritious cocktails and juices will only deprive your body of nutrients and the minute you begin to eat normally, the weight will pack back on.

5. The Apple Cider Vinegar Diet

Once used as a cure for Scurvy amongst American soldiers, apple cider vinegar is now used as an appetite suppressant amongst dieters. According to various evaluations of the Apple Cider Vinegar Diet, the diet touches that fine line between a dangerous and regular diet. The most dangerous part is the apple cider vinegar itself, which when taken in the recommended doses of 3 tbsp gets dangerously close to the point of damaging your stomach due to its high acidity. However, the diet's regimen includes eating in moderation and daily exercise, which is most likely why people lose weight on this diet, not the apple cider vinegar. It is still unclear as to whether or not the vinegar actually assists you in losing weight at all, apart from making you so sick that you don't want to eat anything at all.

Original article source