Currently I’m finishing a new look for the blog where we will concentrate on giving you ideas and programs for the dedicated gym junkie.. No fluff and no crap!

I’d like to introduce a new member of our team Alicia Neasmith.

Alicia is a Freelance Personal Trainer & Lifestyle Coach located in Montreal, Quebec specializing in nutrition & body transformation on a mission to motivate & energize her clients to live a happy & healthy lifestyle.

She is the youngest Professional Swimsuit Model & Fitness Model in the history of the World Natural Sports Organization and competes in Fitness, Swimsuit & Figure competitions all around the world in different federations with numerous titles under her belt. She one her first title at the age of 18 at her very first competition and turned pro right away.

Alicia is also a BodyParts Model & Body Double in a renowned agency in Los Angeles California specializing in body doubling in film, leg, abs, butt, & back modeling.

http://www.bodypartsmodels.com/home.html. She also does stunt work in local movies in Montreal.

Alicia hosts Bootcamp Group Classes all over Montreal with the goal of giving back to the community where all proceeds for each event are donated to charity every summer.

She is alsothe Spokesmodel for a sports supplement line based out of Canada called Revolution Nutrition: www.revolution-nutrition.com.

Alicia practices what she preaches & lives the fitness lifestyle day in & day out.

She has been a competitive athlete her whole life; was a national & provincial record holder swimmer for Canada for many years as well as an elite level soccer player before making the transition to becoming a personal trainer & competing in fitness competitions.

Needless to say we are excited to have Alicia on board and look forward to her prose and advice.

You can fan her on facebook here

Cheers

Anthony

Looking for an easy way to jump start your nutrition. We’ll here a no-brainer approach to optimal dieting.

Get yourself a free account at www.fitday.com to count your calories track your carb, protein and fat intake.

Download your free 12 day Fat Blasting Meal Plan.

Right click on this link  and save link Download

Enjoy!

U.S. Olympic Weightlifting Team, 1940

Originally uploaded by markason

The Following is an article from 2004. An excellent read for those of us into a fitness lifestyle. http://www.westonaprice.org/men/splendidspecimens.html

With the resurgence of old-school training this article gives us a good insight into nutrition and training philosophies of a previous generation.  Seems a lot of these ideas are back in vogue..

Give it a read..

A lot of people make the mistake of thinking they need a SPECIAL
PLAN designed to meet their individual needs and that is a MISTAKE,
at first.

Eventually you can incorporate some more advanced nutrition
techniques but if you’re not flaunting a ripped six-pack, right
now, or exuberating all-day energy, you are probably swimming in
water too deep.

===================
You’ve Been Lied To
===================

We’ve both been conditioned to believe that you need a nutrition
plan different than everyone else. You’re right, partly!

You’ve been told to worry about calories, macronutrient rations and
other advanced details in the beginning, which in my opinion is
wasted energy.

Focusing on these details is like working on your finishing sprint
in the marathon when you’re not even in shape to run 1 mile yet.

The best meal plan is based on BALANCE and VARIETY which is exactly
catered to your physiological make up. You can’t get more
personalized than that!

==========
The TRUTH:
==========

At the start, EVERYONE’S nutritional quest should begin at the SAME
starting line.

Plainly put: You Need A SIMPLE Nutritional Plan You
Can Implement IMMEDIATELY, COMPLETE With The CORRECT,
Foundational Nutritional Principles.

That’s why I want you to download Vince DelMonte’s “Done-For-You”
Fat Loss Meal Plans available at  http://www.empowerednutritionmealplans.com/

It’s critical that you put your meal plan into action TODAY – not
tomorrow, not next week or next month.

I love these plans because they are SO EASY to implement your very
next meal and continue until you have developed the habits
necessary to see results so that you stay motivated and finally
perfect your body and health.

===================================
The Best Part Of Your Own Meal Plan
===================================

There are no rules to follow, complex formulas, expensive
supplements, ridiculous macronutrient ratios that you need to
concern yourself with.

Everything is already DONE-FOR-YOU!

Don’t get me wrong, once you get to being a few percent away from
“camera-ready” and “contest-ready” shape, you’re going to have to
incorporate some more advanced tricks but for now, it’s best you
accept the 3-phase meal plans as the best place to start.

Get your complete set of 30 unique 84-day fat loss meal plans TODAY

http://www.empowerednutritionmealplans.com/

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNw_6DnFJ90

I first got interested in tabata while training my teenage hockey player son. I was looking for some intense conditioning protocols that would somehow mimic intense hockey shift followed by a short period of rest. I stumbled upon Tabata.  After a few session of Tabata I knew I was on to something not only for hockey conditioning but also a way for me to burn off fat and show those muscles I’ve been developing all these years. Yes I’ve done interval training and steady state cardio to expose the six pack.. But .. I’ve found something that in 4 minutes kicks my butt.. Tradition HIIT (High Intensity Training) describes a protocol of work to rest ration of 1 :3 or 1:4 . Therein lies the difference in Tabata which prescribes a 2:1 work to rest ration.. Prepare to have you ass kicked! Let’s explore Tabata training protocols and how it can benefit athletes .. whether you want to just show off your six pack or are training in the off season for hockey, football, rugby, etc. etc.

Background

The Tabata Protocol is named after Dr. Izumi Tabata. He is a former researcher at Japan’s National Institute of Fitness and Sports. Tabata is an interval training method developed by the head coach of the Japanese speed-skating team. (It is termed a protocol because Tabata and his team took the speed-skating coach’s workout and studied it to quantify how effective it really was.) The Tabata workout consists of six to seven 20-second full-speed sprints interspersed with rest periods of 10 seconds.

In Tabata’s study, the researchers found that skaters who used the routine five days a week for six weeks improved their maximum aerobic capacity (a measure of your body’s ability to consume oxygen) by 14%. Even more impressive is that the training also improved anaerobic capacity (which measures your ability to sprint and/or maintain a high pace for an extended period) by 28%. So the Tabata Protocol is the rare workout that benefits both endurance athletes and sprinters. By comparison, a study of traditional aerobic training (running at 70% of aerobic capacity for 60 minutes) for the same number of weeks showed an improvement in aerobic capacity of only 9.5% and no effect on anaerobic capacity. Wow now those are results. Here’s a pubmed link for find out more about the study.

What is Tabata Training Exactly

• A tabata training  interval is 20 seconds of intense work followed by 10 seconds recovery
• Eight intervals are completed
• Total of 4 minutes.. recover 3 minutes then repeat if needed (If you can take the pain)

The 20 seconds of work can be anything from body weight squats, treadmill, bench press, hitting a heavy bag (I like that one) or a circuit. Whatever you want,  as long as the intensity is a 9 or 10 on a scale of 1 to 10.  Here are a couple of examples of what I mean:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v2xm2bkeRQ

Tabata and Fat Loss
We’ve all be led to believe that steady state aerobics is the way to go to melt away  bodyfat.. You know the routine. 30 minutes on the treadmill or bike or stairstepper watching the calorie counter on our favorite display panel. Yuk there has to be a better way.  Traditional thinking is that the source of calories in steady state aerobics is from fat rather than carbs. When Tabata intervals are practiced, research shows that the percentage of fuel from carbs is increased, while the amount of fat utilized is greater than that burned during low intensity exercise. Dr. Tabata’s research found that short-term intense interval training is highly effective in lowering the ratio of lean body mass to fat without wasting muscle .  Additionally, Tabada has been shown to burn fat tissue more effectively than low-intensity exercise:  up to 50% more efficiently! In other words, Tabata increases your metabolism and keeps it elevated for some time after your workout ends.  The bottom line is Tabata burns a greater number of total calories than low intensity training, and more calories burned equals more fat loss.

Department of Physiology and Biomechanics, National Institute of Fitness and Sports, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. This study consists of two training experiments using a mechanically braked cycle ergometer. First, the effect of 6 wk of moderate-intensity endurance training (intensity: 70% of maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max), 60 min.d-1, 5 d.wk-1) on the anaerobic capacity (the maximal accumulated oxygen deficit) and VO2max was evaluated. After the training, the anaerobic capacity did not increase significantly (P > 0.10), while VO2max increased from 53 +/- 5 ml.kg-1 min-1 to 58 +/- 3 ml.kg-1.min-1 (P < 0.01) (mean +/- SD). Second, to quantify the effect of high-intensity intermittent training on energy release, seven subjects performed an intermittent training exercise 5 d.wk-1 for 6 wk. The exhaustive intermittent training consisted of seven to eight sets of 20-s exercise at an intensity of about 170% of VO2max with a 10-s rest between each bout. After the training period, VO2max increased by 7 ml.kg-1.min-1, while the anaerobic capacity increased by 28%. In conclusion, this study showed that moderate-intensity aerobic training that improves the maximal aerobic power does not change anaerobic capacity and that adequate high-intensity intermittent training may improve both anaerobic and aerobic energy supplying systems significantly, probably through imposing intensive stimuli on both systems.

A few online programs use interval training as the basis of their systems. I highly recommend Turbulance Training as a way to loose body fat quickly. Sample Tabata Routines Thrusters .. 20 Sec (As many as you can) 10 Seconds rest repeat 7 more times. So here is the rule.. It’s very simple.. Pick a weight or exercise that you feel comfortable with and  tabatacize your butt off! Do tabata once or twice a week to compliment your aerobics and you’ll see an improvement in both your aerobic and anaerobic capacity.. How’s that for a reason to do tabata’s.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=peLFTePbfDQ

Front Squats (probably the best tabata exercise)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q1f1sZZzv4

To get back to my hockey playing son for a sec..  I have him do slideboard with variety of weights or throwing a medicine ball.. I’ve found that it’s good for his stride power also.. In case you don’t know what a slideboard is.. here is a video..

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmDZBPt0j94

Good Luck and remember to have fun!

Franco and Gerard

Originally uploaded by musclebuilder

Franco and Gerard Butler after training for the movie 300. Very lean and ready to be the King of Sparta!

A very low bodyfat level as seen here is only achievable with dedication to training and diet.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mfQTiumsO4

Check out this interesting article from Sports Illustrated.
http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1155395/1/index.htm

Let us know what you think!

Need a personal trainer in Montreal? Looking for training for your movie cast? Give Franco Licasto and the BodyGenesis crew a call. Experienced, certified personal training on an individual or “Boot Camp” basis.

Also available on a consulting basis.. Achieve your goals for the new year!

Watch the video to the right for a overview of what Franco can offer.

Exclusive elite personal training in Montreal. Diet, programs and consultation

Contact us at webmaster@thebodygenesis.com