North Vancouver Personal Training

West Vancouver Track Workout

2008-10-11T00:14:00.000-07:00

Just got back from training a client at the track in West Vancouver. It was pretty cold out so I trained with him. Here's what we did:
- 2-hand kettlebell swings for 30 seconds
immediately on to
- double kettlebell clean and press for 30 seconds
immediately on to
-Lebert bar pushup to dip combo for 30 seconds
immediately on to
-rope smash for 30 seconds
immediately on to
-1 lap of the track (400 meters)

We did this circuit 3 times then went non to

- Alternating kettlebell swings for 30 seconds
immediately on to
-alternating kettlebell press for 30 seconds
immediately on to
-Lebert bar horizontal rows for 30 seconds
immediately on to
- alternating rope smash for 30 seconds
immediately on to
- 1 lap of the track

We did 3 rounds of this circuit as well.

That was the workout. Believe me I was not cold after a few rounds.

For those of you unfamiliar with Lebert bars, here is a short video with the creator, Mark Lebert, demonstrating the rows.

Well, that's all for today,

Dan Webster
Titanium Fitness Personal Training
North Vancouver
www.titaniumfitness.ca

Saturday Femsport Bootcamp Returns!

2008-10-08T23:55:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody,

Just to let you all know that my Femsport Bootcamp will be starting again this Saturday.

The camp will be held at KO Fitness 1350 Pemberton Ave, North Vancouver, BC.

Plan to show up for noon to register and we will get started at 12:15.

It goes for about an hour and consists of high intensity interval circuit training.

We will be dragging tires, swinging kettlebells and sledgehammers, smashing ropes and doing lots of hard bodyweight exercises.

You can go at your own pace but plan to sweat!

Below is a sample video from last seasons camp.

Hope to see you Saturday.

That's all for today,

Dan Webster
Titanium Fitness Personal Training
North Vancouver

Simple...Not Easy

2008-10-05T13:19:00.000-07:00

Ropes are some of my favorite pieces of exercise equipment.

At my gym in North Vancouver, I have a 40 foot piece of 1.5 inch and a 50 foot piece of 2 inch manilla rope.

As a personal trainer, I am always looking for new, unique and, most of all, effective tools for training my clients (not just the latest balance toy!).

The ropes can be used for a full body workout and are especially effective for interval training and circuit training. They can also be used for an intense cardio exercise without using the legs. How many times have you or someone you know had a lower body injury and had a hard time getting a good high intensity cardio workout in. With ropes you can. I personally have a client with rhumetoid arthritis, and therefore very sore knees, who loves using the ropes.

Here is a short video

If you're in North Vancouver or the surrounding area and you'd like to try this unique type of exercise, email me at titaniumfitness@telus.net to set up a free session.

That's all for today,

Dan Webster
Titanium Fitness Personal Training
North Vancouver
www.titaniumfitness.ca

OMG...

2008-10-02T23:08:00.000-07:00

Here is a video of Steve Cotter. This dude is probably the strongest, fittest guy pound for pound on the planet. Check it out.

That's all for today,

Dan Webster
Titanium Fitness Personal Training
North Vancouver

Why Cardio Doesn't Work for Fat Loss

2008-10-01T12:49:00.000-07:00

Here is an article by Craig Ballantyne. I am a bit under the weather and figured this would be a way to give you some good info without having to think too much.

Dan Webster
Titanium Fitness Personal Training
North Vancouver

Why Cardio Doesn't Work for Fat Loss

By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
www.TurbulenceTraining.com

Cardio exercise is such a strange thing. In theory, it should work
so perfectly well for all men and women, but as anyone who has
tried it knows, the practicality of it just doesn't add up.

After all, some men and women do cardio 6 hours, 9 hours, or more per week, and still have belly fat to burn. On the other hand, it works just fine for others.

British researchers wanted to get more insight into this paradox, and studied 35 overweight men and women, who weren't previously exercising.

(Reference: International Journal of Obesity 32: 177-184, 2008).

Subjects exercised 5 times per week for 12 weeks. That's a lot of
exercise, but it helped the subjects lose an average of 8.2 pounds, which is great - I was positively surprised by the results.

So cardio will work for some people, however, in my experience, it works best in young men, who need the help the least!

Back to the study, the variance in fat loss between individuals was huge. Check this out...

The best subject lost a staggering 32.3 pounds in 12 weeks, while the worst subject actually GAINED 3.74 pounds.

The scientists think they know where things went sour. They
classified the subjects into 2 groups, called the "Compensators"
and the "Non-compensators".

The Compensators were hungrier, and as a result consumed an extra 268 calories per day, all but wiping out their cardio efforts.

Therefore, the Compensators lost the least amount of weight, and scientists believe that was due to the huge "compensatory" increase in appetite experienced by this group.

Does your appetite increase when you do slow cardio? If it does,
research shows it will ruin your cardio efforts.

So if your cardio program is not working for you, check your
appetite and calorie intake to see if you are "compensating" for
your efforts. If you are, you might be better off using a program
of high-intensity resistance and interval training (i.e. Turbulence Training) for your weight loss efforts.

As Australian Professor Steve Boucher has shown in research,
interval training increases hormones called catecholamines. And
increased catecholamines can reduce appetite, among other fat-
burning benefits.

In the real world, few people lose 33 pounds after 12 weeks of
cardio. Heck, few even achieve an average weight loss of 8 pounds with aerobic exercise.

So again, check your appetite, and consider giving high-intensity
exercise a go for your next workout program.

Beat the curse of cardio with high-intensity Turbulence Training.

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training

About the Author

Learn about the "Dark Side of Cardio" in the free report from Craig Ballantyne at www.TurbulenceTraining.com. Craig is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Health, Men's Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit www.TurbulenceTraining.com

Wii School of Personal Training...

2008-10-01T00:38:00.001-07:00

This video makes me laugh. The first time I saw it was at the Ryan Lee Bootcamp.

Now, this video is funny but even funnier is the fact that some trainers do these same exercises. Don't get me wrong...I think balance training is important and incorporating it into your program is great. The thing is, if you can do the same thing at home on a toy, why would you pay $60+ to do this for an hour at the gym?

Maybe spending time on things that make a bigger difference, like calisthenics and weight training, would be a better use of your time...and money.

That's all for today,

Dan Webster
Personal Trainer
Titanium Fitness
North Vancouver, BC

And The Winner Is…

2008-09-29T22:13:00.000-07:00

People always ask me what the best form of exercise is. Normally I tell them that the exercise that they will do the most consistently is the best. However if I had to choose just one type I would have to pick bodyweight exercise (calisthenics). Here are my reasons:

-Your body is always available to you unlike a gym that may have fixed hours.

-The carry over to real life is greater than any other type of exercise (truly functional, not dancing on a BOSU “functional”)

-It is free

-It takes very little training to learn correct form

-It is immensely scalable. You can make it as easy or as hard as you want

-It can be used to improve all areas of fitness: strength, flexibility, cardio, mobility, and agility

-Easily done alone or in groups

-Very safe

Try this workout.

Do Squats for 30 seconds
Do Pushups for as many repetitions as comfortably possible.
Rest 2 minutes and repeat 2 more times.
Do the squats as fast as you can with good form.
Do the pushups from your knees if you can’t do at least 10 repetitions.
You can do this workout as often as you like as long as you are not too sore and your repetitions are not going down. Try for at least 3 times per week.

This workout is very simple yet you can make it as hard as you want to by pushing yourself a little more each time.

That’s all for today,

Dan Webster
Titanium Fitness

Get a Grip

2008-09-28T18:53:00.001-07:00

As a personal trainer and someone who enjoys physical labour, it never ceases to amaze me, how little effort (if any) people put into grip training.

Today I was building an allan block retaining wall, at my home in West Vancouver, with my father-in-law and boy did my forearms get pumped!

Pinch gripping the blocks and shoveling all day made me grateful for the grip work I do when I train. Now make no mistake. I don't screw around doing body part workouts where I do 3 sets of wrist curls on my biceps, calves and forearms day. Yes, I used to train like that as a kid, when I had no responsibilities, and didn't know any better. These days it's all about full body, compound movements. I get heaps of grip and forearm work from training with kettlebells, sledgehammers, ropes, chin-ups and sandbags.

I love this kind of physical labour almost as much as I love the training. If you want to check out a workout that will get you real life strong, check out Zach Even-Esh's Underground Strength Coach! program. Zach is a beast and is very passionate about training hard. I had the honour of listening to him in Connecticut last week.

So remember...don't forget to train your grip. Don't use lifting straps. Avoid machines. Lift odd shaped items. Swing kettlebells. Get stronger in ways that will make a difference in how you live, not just how you look.

That's all for today,

Dan Webster
Titanium Fitness

P.S. My "core" was really pumped after all the real work today and I didn't even have to go lie down at a "Pie Lattes" class.

Ryan Lee Bootcamp III

2008-09-27T23:23:00.000-07:00

Hey Everybody,

I spent last weekend at the 3rd Ryan Lee Bootcamp. For those of you who don't know, this is THE conference for personal trainers that really want to make a difference in people's lives while also making a great living!

What can I say? It was incredible. There was so much usable content that it will take my poor little brain days to organize it. The presenters were amazing. The attendees were the most energetic, fun and open minded group of people I've met.

I am confident that I will be a better (and more prosperous) trainer when I return next year after I implement the info I've learned. Part of that info is doing what I'm doing right now...blogging. This is so you can get to know me and hopefully I'll get to know you.

Let me know if there is anything you'd like me to blog about relating to health and fitness or even family stuff. I've got 2 little sweeties that I'd love to talk about.

Please check back here (or sign up for the RSS feed, when I figure it out) often. Sorry guys...no video yet :)

(Insert whitty or inspirational quote/signature line here)
Dan

Diet: Eating Clean

2007-06-22T00:27:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the second post on the North and West Vancouver Personal Training blog.

It's me, Dan, again. I've been assured by a handful of trainers that they will get some articles to me to post here. Remember, my goal is for you the reader to get info from an assortment of trainers.

Well, on with the show.

One of the simplest ways to lose weight is to eat clean. Notice I said "simplest" not "easiest".

Eating clean basically means eating foods in their natural state. This would include such practices as, eating your fruits and veggies raw, eating brown rice instead of white (processed) rice and eating organic foods, among others. Like I said. Simple not easy.

We've all been in a situation where we worked or played too long and now we're hungry...scratch that...now we're starving. It's so easy to grab a candy bar or even a protein bar just to fill the gap. The problem with processed foods is that they tend to be deficient in essential nutrients like fibre and enzymes that our bodies need to efficiently process them. Add to that the chemicals, simple sugars and bad fats and your body now has a difficult time getting what it needs. This in turn can lead to a host of issues , with fatigue and irritability at the top of the list. Also your body is still looking for nutrients and therefore your appetite is also stimulated. So you've gone from empty and starving to slightly filled, toxic and still starving.

The easiest first step to eating clean is do what we all know we should do...eat more fresh fruits and vegetables.
Next avoid all junk food. Come on. It's called "junk" for a reason.
Next try going organic. Sure it can be more expensive, but being sick and fat can bankrupt you physically, emotionally and financially.

Start with this and in as little time as a month you can see significant changes in your health, energy, attitude and of course, weight.

Thanks again,
Dan Webster
Titanium Fitness

titaniumfitness.blogspot.com

Welcome

2007-06-02T23:51:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the North and West Vancouver Personal Training Blog!

The intent of this blog is to have guest trainers from North and West Vancouver write posts with general information on themselves and on health and fitness. This will hopefully give North Shore residents a place to come to get some information if they are looking for personal training or at the very least get a variety of free information from an assortment of qualified personal trainers.

So let me begin.
My name is Dan Webster and I am a personal trainer in North Vancouver. I have been involved in the health and fitness industry for 15 years.

My general training philosophy is if you want to get great results you have to put in great effort. I'm not here to tell you that getting in shape is easy. Getting in shape is perhaps simple, but not easy.

I feel (and most recent research agrees) that to lose fat and get in great shape you need to do 3 main things.

1. You need to watch what you eat. Losing weight(fat) is 80%-90% diet.

2. You need to strength train. Use a combination of heavy compound exercises and body weight training. Avoid or limit isolation exercises (i.e. biceps curls, chest flyes, lateral raises, etc) and don't overuse gym toys like the Swiss ball, BOSU or wobble board.

3. Do intense interval training for cardio. Avoid long slow cardio unless you are injured, severely detrained or a glutton for boring exercise.

Well there you have it...simple but not easy. If someone tells you to "Train Smart, Not Hard" you tell them that training hard is part of training smart.

Thanks for reading,

Dan Webster
Titanium Fitness

www.titaniumfitness.blogspot.com