Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone.

I hope you’ve been enjoying the gorgeous weather here in Toronto the past couple of days. Before long, summer will be here!

As the weather gets warmer, is your sense of panic increasing? Let me guess…it’s not sunburn, mosquito bites, or bad barbecue meat that you fear. It’s the thought of being seen in public in a bathing suit! Not quite ready yet for the “big reveal”? This post is for you.

Today we’re going to explore a personal trainers Toronto method known as cross-training. It involves combining exercises that challenge muscle with activities that train your heart and lungs as part of the same workout. Research shows that an intense cross-training workout can burn 600 or more calories per hour – something you won’t get with almost any other type of workout.

So if you need to get in shape fast, try this personal trainers Toronto routine (very entertaining and educational video to follow):

Mini-Circuit #1– Squat Press/Pushups/Medicine Ball Twists: A mini-circuit involves rotating 3 or 4 exercises without rest. In this way you’re keeping your heart rate high, but using different muscles so you avoid paralyzing fatigue. A great way to do this is by combining an upper body movement with a lower body movement, and core training.

1. The Squat Press: holding light dumbbells at your shoulders, descend into a squat, then stand and press the dumbbells overhead to arm’s length. Repeat 10-20 times and you should already feel your heart rate jump!
2. Pushups: if regular pushups are a bit too challenging for you to get 10-20 repetitions in good form, try a modified pushup by placing your knees on the floor, or placing your hands on a bench for greater elevation. PERSONAL TRAINERS TORONTO TIP: Keep your body in a straight line, with core muscles tight and hold your shoulder blades together as you go down. Pushups really strengthen all the “pushing” muscles of the upper body (chest, shoulders, triceps), and tone unsightly arm fat.
3. Medicine Ball Twists: sit on an exercise mat and lean back slightly, supporting your feet of the floor by contracting your abdominal muscles. Grab a medicine ball or small weight, hold it like a steering wheel in front of you and twist, lowering the ball to touch the floor on either side of you. Alternate like this 15-20 times and you should get a good burn going.
Cardio Interval – At this point of the workout take 3 to 5 minutes to do some light running, skipping, jumping jacks, or climbing stairs, whatever is available to you. The goal of the interval is to keep the activity continuous, as this will keep the heart rate high, challenge your breathing, and allow your muscles to recover somewhat for the next mini-circuit!

Mini-Circuit #2 – Split Squat/Db Row/Rock-Climbers:
1. Split Squat: stand as though taking a long stride with one foot in front of you and the other behind you. Lower yourself into a deep knee bend, keeping the shoulders back and pressing on the heel of your front foot, then stand and repeat. Repeat for 10-20 repetitions per leg.
2. Db Row: holding a dumbbell in each hand, lean over keeping your back flat and your feet about shoulder width apart. From this bent position, begin by extending your arms in the direction of the floor, then pull the dumbbells toward you while keeping the elbows close to the body and squeezing the shoulder blades together. This move will help you tone the arms and back. Repeat for 15-20 repetitions.
3. Rock-Climbers: try this version using a stability ball. Begin in a plank position with your forearms on top of the ball. With the core muscles tight, try bringing one knee at a time forward to touch the ball, and alternate about 15-20 times. Fighting for balance while doing this movement is an excellent way to engage your core muscles and target that “Buddha belly”.

Perform each personal trainers Toronto mini-circuit three times before doing a cardio interval. Depending on how much time you have, you may want to repeat one or both mini-circuits, every time with a cardio interval in between. The key is to rest as little as possible throughout the workout, and to really push the pace. That’s how you’ll get maximum benefit. This may mean starting with a shorter workout until your conditioning improves.

As always, try to workout not less than three days per week (do some walking or recreational activity on off days) and follow a program of supportive eating. Bottom line, even with great workouts like these, you’ll go backwards if your diet sucks!

Check out my “Secrets of Supportive Eating” seminar to find out everything you need to know to be able to succeed on a nutrition plan. It takes place on April 8th at the Spanish Centre near Yonge and Bloor, and many spots are already taken so act now to reserve your spot! Call (416) 220-7883 or go here:

www.ConorKellySeminar.com

The combination of the right foods with a progressive form of exercise like cross-training will help you turn some heads at the swimming pool this summer!

Leave your comments below if you have any questions – I’ll be sure to answer…

Live Strong and Healthy,

Conor Kelly
EVOLUTION FITNESS – PERSONAL TRAINERS TORONTO
(416) 220-7883

Posted under Fitness/Nutrition Tips

Not sure if you saw my last personal trainers Toronto post, but it included a cool new video I made of a great 14-Minute Fat-Blasting workout you can do when you’re pressed for time.

If you missed it, you can see the video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRo66lmtsJ4

It’s funny but that workout actually saved me earlier this week, when life interfered with my good intentions.

Which brings me to an absolutely CRUCIAL lesson regarding your personal trainers Toronto fitness program.

Allow to me explain…

Although I had scheduled my workout for 8.30 Tuesday evening, I ended up in a meeting that ran long and did not get home until 9.30.

For me to do my planned workout at that time, and finish at 10.30 – after which I’d still need to eat and settle down a bit – I might not get to bed before midnight, and that just doesn’t work for me.

Bottom line – I need my beauty rest.

So I went to the gym in my building, put my personal trainers Toronto 14-minute workout to the test, felt much better, and blasted some fat!

The lesson here has two parts to it:

(1) Doing something, no matter how short, is always better than missing your workout altogether, and

(2) You can accomplish quite a bit in a brief workout…if the intensity is right.

The intensity is the key.

After a brief warm up, I completed a full six circuits without stopping, pushing the pace – and myself – and by the end was huffing and puffing pretty good (which got some curious looks from the guy casually riding the bike while chatting on his cell phone).

Short, high-intensity bursts of effort raise the level of catecholamines in your body.

These are your fat-burning hormones.

Plus, the intensity challenges muscle, and increases the rate of “protein turnover”, which means you burn more calories after the workout as your body uses them for repair and recovery.

You’ve now created an environment in your body that lends itself to your building muscle, boosting your metabolism, and burning fat, all in LESS THAN 15 MINUTES!

Sound worthwhile?

My rule is to put personal trainers Toronto workouts in your calendar each week, and stick to them like you would any appointment you would have for work. But when life happens – and it will – use a workout like I just described to take back control of your fitness and fat loss destiny.

When you learn this, you’ll never miss another opportunity to burn fat.

Live Strong and Healthy,

Conor Kelly
EVOLUTION FITNESS – PERSONAL TRAINERS TORONTO
(416) 220-7883

P.S. Want the ultimate in convenience and time-efficient workouts? Call (416) 220-7883 to try a complimentary session at our “4-Week Transformation” Boot Camp!!

Posted under Fitness/Nutrition Tips

I hope you’re enjoying the spring-like weather here in Toronto.

The spring means warmer temperatures, less clothing, and more of your body showing. That’s why I thought I’d give you a new personal trainers Toronto video, inspired by Canada’s golden performance at the Olympics.

14 Gold Medals ==> 14-minute fat-blasting workout!

Why 14 minutes?

Well frankly, because here in the Gold Medal capital of the world we’re busy kicking butt and don’t always have time for a long, drawn-out training session. We’ve got gold medals to win, right?

Besides, the personal trainers Toronto rule is quick and intense = results!

Watch this brief personal trainers Toronto video of how to get a fantastic, fat-blasting workout in just 14 minutes:

14 Golds For Canada 14 Minute Fat-Blasting Workout

Watch it now before YouTube bans me for my most illicit use of the Olympic song (couldn’t resist). : )

Anyone can find 14 minutes a day to blast fat.

BE the kind of person that WILL do it.

Live Strong and Healthy,

Conor Kelly
EVOLUTION FITNESS -PERSONAL TRAINERS TORONTO
(416) 220-7883

Posted under Fitness/Nutrition Tips

Ok, so the subject line was kind of cheesy – I couldn’t resist…

And apparently you’ll need to be fit to watch our men’s Olympic hockey team play…

I counted at least three heart attacks during that Canada vs. USA stress test I endured the other night!

A few hard thumps to the chest and now I’m back to bringing you great personal trainers Toronto fitness content to help you excel at fitness and nutrition, so you can win the war on fat.

Below I’ve posted 5 key strategies for MASTERING this thing called fitness and permanently changing your body:

1. Set Clear Goals. Set your compass (or your GPS nowadays, I guess)! Get clear on where you’re going and your path will also become clearer. It’s important to have both long-term goals and short-term checkpoints along the way. Hold your desired outcome in your mind, but focus on the next step and you’ll get there faster. My best advice is not to be vague but to be really specific about exactly what it is that you want as this will empower you to act on it.

2. Plan & Prepare. Fit people are always thinking ahead…where they’re gonna be…what they need to bring. The reason most nutrition plans break down is because of convenience. What’s convenient is not usually the most supportive option, unless you make a point of knowing how your day or week will unfold and commit to preparing food and snacks and bringing it with you (or, if eating out, knowing in advance what and where are the most supportive options). This is the only foolproof strategy I’ve seen for sticking to your plan, and perhaps the single biggest trait that seperates the ultra-fit from the unfit, in my experience.

3. Keep A Journal. If you don’t know your current pattern, how the heck can you change it? Keeping a journal of your nutrition and exercise empowers you to know EXACTLY what you are doing so you can make any necessary corrections. In a study I’ve quoted before, this one habit DOUBLED the speed of the participants weight loss results. My best advice for getting the most out of this personal trainers Toronto strategy is to be as detailed as possible with your entries, keep your journal where you’re most likely to fill it out, and show it to a coach or workout partner to ramp up the accountability factor.

4. Always Eat Protein. Try to get a little bit of protein with every meal and snack. Protein stimulates your metabolism because your body expends more energy in digesting it. This means you burn more calories! Also, protein is the primary building block of muscle, and how much lean muscle you have is mainly what determines your resting metabolic rate. Again, this means you burn more calories!! That makes adding a bit of protein to each meal a “no-brainer”.

5. Time Your Eating. Eat for what you are about to do, not what you just did!! Your body works on a use-as-you-go basis, and calories are burned off that way too. I overhear people all the time saying, that they need to workout because they have a “big night” ahead, from which I infer they plan to eat and drink – a lot. But they have it backwards! Starving yourself before a night out will also backfire. The calories you save or burn in either case will already have been exceeded by your first glass of wine and the appetizers. Eating late, or eating your biggest meal of the day at dinner is probably the #1 reason your body is not what you’d like it to be. To succeed with this personal trainers Toronto strategy, spread your calories through the day more, when you need them, and cut down in the evenings.

–> 6. Bonus Strategy. <-- Yes, I realize I did say five strategies, so here’s an unannounced bonus tip: register for my “Secrets of Supportive Eating” seminar next Tuesday, March 2nd at 6.30pm. Why?

What one person can do, another can do.

The only thing that seperates you from someone who has achieved the gold-standard of body-transformation is something they know which you don’t! “Secrets of Supportive Eating” is designed to give you in-depth knowledge of eating for fat loss AND the tools you need to change your thoughts, emotions, and habits around food – a prerequisite for changing your body.

The last time we ran this workshop we had such great feedback that I’m confident it can help you make some real changes…the strategies I’ll share have transformed my life and the lives of many others.

Get the details, and register by going here:

www.ConorKellySeminar.com <--- Go here now!!

But hurry! There are only a few spots left...

Why be good when you can be great?

Don't settle for mediocrity, aim for mastery, just like our Olympic athletes do, and what you'll get may not be a medal, but it will be gold...

www.ConorKellySeminar.com <—- Click here now!!

Live Strong and Healthy,

Conor Kelly
EVOLUTION FITNESS – PERSONAL TRAINERS TORONTO
(416) 220-7883

Posted under Fitness/Nutrition Tips

I hope you had a great Valentine’s Day and Family Day weekend.

Apart from the cheat meal (a great part of the personal trainers Toronto nutrition plan) I had at Cafe Demetre that contained enough sugar to put a polar bear in a diabetic coma, most of the excitement was over the weekend was the start of the Olympics, and there were some pretty awesome and inspiring moments already!

I’ll never forget watching men’s moguls Sunday, and Alexandre Bilodeau’s HUGE Gold Medal victory!!!

Go team Canada!!!

The Olympics are always full of great sporting achievements, but what I love most about it is just the sheer amount of HEART these athletes have.

Which is appropriate, because February is Heart Month, and my personal trainers Toronto blog post today is about how you can help me raise money for life-saving research, while doing something good for your own heart, and just having a lot of FUN.

On Saturday, February 20th and Saturday, February 27th at 9AM both days, we are holding some fun, energizing, and FREE personal trainers Toronto boot camp workouts in our facility at Yonge and Bloor.

There is no charge for you to join in the fun and experience the ultimate in energy-enhancing and flab-reducing workouts, all we ask is that you support our campaign by donating $10 to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

You can make a quick donation online at our personal trainers Toronto web page on The Heart and Stroke Foundation website, located here:

www.BootCampInToronto.com

Then, simply reply to this email or call us at (416) 220-7883 to let us know you’re coming so we can plan our equipment needs.

We’ll be sure to give you all the details on how to get here when you call or write.

I hope you’re finding the Olympics as inspiring as I do, and you’ll come join us at our free personal trainers Toronto Heart Month Boot Camps to get personally inspired, get a great sweat going, and shake off the winter blahs, all while raising money for a great cause.

Hope to see you there!

Live Strong and Healthy,

Conor Kelly
EVOLUTION FITNESS – PERSONAL TRAINERS TORONTO
(416) 220-7883

Posted under Announcements

I hope you enjoyed the Will Smith video I shared with you on our personal trainers Toronto blog last week. It’s truly exciting when someone at such a high echelon of success shares their success secrets.

If you haven’t seen it yet, watch it here:

Awesome, inspirational Will Smith video

Ok, let’s talk some fat loss now…

I explained in my last email about the importance of maintaining lean muscle tissue as you lose weight, because that’s what keeps your metabolic rate high.

Maintaining (or preferrably building) lean muscle tissue is the key to rapid and sustainable fat loss, and the #1 secret to the long term success of your personal trainers Toronto weight loss program.

You can reduce the loss of muscle mass when you are losing weight by adding the exercise component – particularly resistance training.

But exercise can’t do it all. What you eat is important as well. This is where leucine comes in.

“What is leucine?”, you might ask.

Leucine is an essential amino acid. It’s also what we call a “branched chain” amino acid, a term that refers to its chemical structure.

Leucine has been used by bodybuilders for years to increase muscle mass when they are working out.

And there is good evidence that it is effective for that purpose. According to a friend of personal trainers Toronto, Dr. Stephen Chaney from the University of North Carolina:

“It has just been in the last few years that evidence started to accumulate that leucine can also help preserve muscle mass when people are losing weight.

The bottom line is that weight loss diets providing around 10 g of leucine/day coupled with a 1.5:1 ratio of carbohydrate to protein are more effective at preserving muscle mass than the kind of weight loss diet that most people follow.”

Cool, huh?

But you’re probably wondering how this can help you…

Our personal trainers Toronto nutrition company of choice, Shaklee, offers a unique inch loss plan which provides 12 g of leucine/day and the carbohydrate to protein ratio is 1.4:1 for the Cinch Shake Mix and 1.6:1 for the Cinch Meal Bar.

So it shouldn’t come as any surprise that in Shaklee’s 12 week clinical study of people on the Cinch Inch Loss Plan the average weight loss was 15.4 pounds – and none of that came from muscle!

To be clear, I don’t believe supplements should be considered as the basis for any personal trainers Toronto program (that’s why they’re called “supplements”, which, by definition means “extra”), but they certainly do make a huge difference, and can accelerate your results dramatically.

If you’d like to learn more about what supplements are right for you given your unique requirements, call us at (416) 220-7883 to schedule your complimentary Personal Trainers Toronto Nutrition and Supplementation consultation.

There is no obligation to buy anything – just to get the education you need to get closer to your goals.

Education + systems = RESULTS!!!

Live Strong and Healthy,

Conor Kelly
EVOLUTION FITNESS – PERSONAL TRAINERS TORONTO
(416) 220-7883

P.S. Here are our references:

Layman, J. Nutr, 133: 216S-267S, 2003.
Layman and Walker, J. Nutr., 133: 405-410, 2003
Layman et al, J. Nutr., 133: 411-417, 2003
Layman and Walker, J. Nutr., 136: 319S-323S, 2006
Jitomer and Willoughby, J. Med. Food, 11: 606-609, 2008

Posted under Fitness/Nutrition Tips

I was all set to send you that personal trainers Toronto info I promised on a special nutrient that can make a huge difference to your fat loss program, until I saw this video and decided I just had to share it with you.

It’s a mega movie star (and fitness freak) talking about his philosophy on life, success, and how to create in your life all the wonderful things you desire.

I really believe in constantly feeding my mind with positive, supportive thoughts.  That’s why I urge you to watch this video in its entirety, and watch it several times…it’s that profound.

I’ve been a fan of Will Smith since watching him on ”Fresh Prince of Bel Air” as a kid.  He’s come a really long way as an actor and a humanitarian, but I have to say this video surprised (and inspired) me quite a bit.  Get a load of what he says about the treadmill…

If you like this kind of inspiration, you’ll LOVE my “Secrets of Supportive Eating” Seminar.  It’s all about giving you the knowledge you need to make the changes that are necessary for you to succeed with your nutrition program.

We held our SSE seminar on Tuesday for a full class, and based on the feedback we’ve received, we may have to raise our prices!!

For a limited time, register for the March SSE at February’s prices, but act fast, this one will also fill up!

Call me at (416) 220-7883 or go here to register:

http://hstrial-ckelly4.homestead.com/SSESeminar.html

Starting today, be RUTHLESS in transforming yourself.

Conor Kelly
EVOLUTION FITNESS – PERSONAL TRAINERS TORONTO
(416) 220-7883

P.S.  I wanna hear what you think of this video!  Leave your comments below…

Posted under Inspirational

Hope the decade is going well for you so far.

January is always a busy time in our Toronto weight loss industry, and it really has been a lot of fun!

I’m looking forward to February as well, and especially to February 2nd, for two reasons.

First, it’s my birthday – yay!  But second, it’s also the debut of my new “Secrets of Supportive Eating” Toronto weight loss seminar, which I’m excited about.

It’s not too late for you to join me in celebrating what great nutrition habits can do for you!

Check it out:

http://hstrial-ckelly4.homestead.com/SSESeminar.html

Ok, on to today’s great Toronto weight loss content. : )

I’ve probably told you many times that there are no “magic” foods or “magic” supplements that are simply going to make the fat melt away.

However, there are some nutrients that are important for long term weight control and whose role in Toronto weight loss is based on solid science.

But, let’s start with the problem before I discuss the solution.

The problem is that whenever we lose weight we generally lose muscle mass as well as fat. To be precise, you lose about 5 pounds of muscle for every 12 pounds of weight loss.

That is a concern because muscle is metabolically much more active than fat. Since each pound of muscle burns about 50 calories a day, that 5 pounds of muscle you lost costs you 250 calories a day.

That means that if you want to keep losing weight on you Toronto weight loss program at the same rate after you have taken off that first 12 pounds, you will need to reduce your calories by another 250 calories a day – and if you manage to lose another 12 pounds you will have to reduce your calories by yet another 250 calories per day to keep losing weight.

This is what leads to the dreaded Toronto weight loss plateau!

But it gets worse.

Let’s say that you lose 12 or 24 pounds (corresponding to 5-10 pounds of muscle or 250 to 500 calories per day) and go off of your diet because you got discouraged by the plateau.

When you regain your weight it comes back mostly as fat, not as muscle. So now you need to eat 250-500 calories a day less just to maintain your Toronto weight loss.

The result is that you usually gain back more weight than you lost.

This is what leads to the dreaded yo-yo effect!

You can reduce the loss of muscle mass when you are losing weight by adding the exercise component – particularly resistance training.

But exercise can’t do it all. What you eat is important as well.

So important, in fact, that if you ignore this rule, it can negate the effects of exercise!

What nutrients help you make the most of the time you spend exercising and your Toronto weight loss program?

Join me on my birthday at “Secrets of Supportive Eating” to find out!

Go here to register:

http://hstrial-ckelly4.homestead.com/SSESeminar.html

We’ll be working on physical AND mental strategies for success with your nutrition and Toronto weight loss plan!

Live Strong and Healthy,

Conor Kelly
EVOLUTION FITNESS – PERSONAL TRAINERS TORONTO
(416) 220-7883

P.S.  There is one nutrient in particular which has some interesting benefits to your Toronto weight loss program. Stay tuned for my next email to find out more, or simply register for just $29 to discover exactly what nutrients work just like “magic”:

http://hstrial-ckelly4.homestead.com/SSESeminar.html

Posted under Uncategorized

How good is your support system?

Ever since I announced my new Personal Trainers Toronto seminar, “Secrets of Supportive Eating” on Tuesday, I’ve been getting phone calls from people asking, “is this a good thing to bring my spouse/significant other to?”

You know what my answer is?

Heck, yeah!

So much of the recent research on the problem of weight loss has shown that having a good support system (sometimes referred to as “social support”) is a big key to success with your personal trainers Toronto fitness program and nutrition plan.

It can definitely be a challenge to make the lifestyle changes that have to happen if you’re going to see lasting fitness and fat loss results.

That’s why you need to be accountable to someone other than yourself.

“Going it alone” dramatically increases the odds of failing.

It’s just far too easy to rationalize and get away with not doing something (or doing something you shouldn’t) when you’re accountable only to yourself.

In fact, one recent study very capably demonstrated that weekly accountability can improve your chances
of success by up to 4200%!

That’s why I’ve decided to reach out to you and make you an offer you can’t refuse…

…bring a spouse, friend or significant other to our personal trainers Toronto “Secrets of Supportive Eating” and you can both attend the course for just $34!

Get the details and register by going here:

http://hstrial-ckelly4.homestead.com/SSESeminar.html

One day you might look back at this evening as the turning point.  I will be sharing the only personal trainers Toronto system for transforming your body and reclaiming your health, using strategies based in the physical AND mental aspects of weight loss success, discovered through years of helping people just like you achieve
their fitness goals.

There are many ways to get great support.  You can Join a group, use a buddy system, or hire a coach to
keep you accountable.

But having the support of the people closest to you is pretty darn important too.

Join us for “Secrets of Supportive Eating”, and be sure to bring a buddy!  Register here:

http://hstrial-ckelly4.homestead.com/SSESeminar.html

Live Strong and Healthy,

Conor Kelly
EVOLUTION FITNESS – PERSONAL TRAINERS TORONTO
(416) 220-7883

Posted under Announcements, Commentary, Fitness/Nutrition Tips, Inspirational

You may or may not know this about me, but I love to share my latest and best personal trainers Toronto secrets to body transformation success with my readers.

It really feels great to know that I’m helping someone make the change in their life that I made long ago by losing weight and reclaiming my body and my energy.

One thing I would love even more, is to show you in person, step-by-step, how to use my latest, best, and most transformational personal trainers Toronto strategies to change your body, increase your energy and your confidence, and feel better than you have in a long time – possibly ever.

That’s why I’ve put together a special, one-night-only event to “Criss Angel” you into thinking like your fittest you, so you can actually look and feel at your fittest.

Read all about it here:

http://hstrial-ckelly4.homestead.com/SSESeminar.html

It’s called “Secrets of Supportive Eating” and it’s where I’ll personally walk you through the ONLY complete personal trainers Toronto nutrition system for transforming your body and reclaiming your health once and for all, using strategies based in the mental, emotional, and physical aspects of weight loss success.

But hurry…space is VERY limited for this one.

Get your spot by going here:

http://hstrial-ckelly4.homestead.com/SSESeminar.html

To the new you,

Conor Kelly
EVOLUTION FITNESS – PERSONAL TRAINERS TORONTO
(416) 220-7883

P.S.  Nutrition is more important than exercise for losing and keeping off weight.  If you’re finding it hard to make progress, you need to know our personal trainers Toronto “Secrets of Supportive Eating”.  Go here now:

http://hstrial-ckelly4.homestead.com/SSESeminar.html

Posted under Announcements