RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

EVERY time you exercise do different exercises. Constantly change it up. This prevents boredom & forces your muscles to adapt which will get you quicker results.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Having nice abs is more than just doing ab exercises. It's doing cardio properly to be burning body fat not energy/muscle & your nutrition (staying within your daily calorie limit, avoiding foods high in saturated fat/sugars/sodium, and eating high glycemic carbs (bread/pasta/rice) ONLY after exercise).

SIDE NOTE: High glycemic carbs means they digest quickly. Since they do they should only be eaten post-exercise because with exercise you deplete your energy (glycogen) levels. Fruit & veggie carbs are low glycemic (digest slowly) so they should be eaten the rest of the day. Be careful with that... See More word "wheat." Look for lables to say "100% whole grain wheat." Just because it says "wheat" doesn't mean it's the entire wheat grain or it could even be just white bread that's died to look like wheat bread. Companies do that to trick people because of the whole health craze now with bread.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

You can speed up your metabolism (rate at which you burn calories) by weight training & eating 5-6 SMALL meals/day; eating every 2-3hrs.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Here's a video of Britney Spears being trained prior to her current Circus tour. The way she is being trained/the way she is exercising is the same way I see many females being trained or exercising on their own on a daily basis. How Britney and many of you are exercising is NOT to be lean & toned, but BODYBUILDING.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNnOtAXU7f4

Doing one set of an isolated movement exercise then resting a few mins then doing another set is training for BODYBUILDING, not to be lean & toned. Why is Britney being trained this way? I don't know. It's possible her trainer does not have the proper certification or experience to know any different. Many trainers who don't have education or experience, rely on training their clients the same way they train themselves. If you look at the physique of her trainer it's obvious she is a bodybuilder/fitness competitor. The definition of her back & shoulders give it away. If any of you have seen Britney during this tour her legs & arms are huge, not lean & toned. Bottomline is, if you are being trained by someone make sure they are training you for YOUR specific goal not theirs.

Anyone looking to be lean & toned should be weight training using HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). HIIT means doing one set of an exercise, following it up with a completely different exercise no rest in between, then after the second exercise resting for 30-60sec. Repeating for 3sets.

With the second exercise you will get your heart rate up, then by resting 30-60sec it will come down, but not all the way down to resting. It'll be in your target heart rate "fat burning zones."

Example: Doing a set of lunges, followed by 30sec of pushups no rest in between, then resting 30-60sec after the pushups. Repeating this for 3 sets.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

There's no wrong time to do cardio, but the two best times: 1) As soon as you wake up before you've eaten anything. 2) After you weight train. Both times the primary calorie source your body will use to burn will be body fat (stored calories).

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Are you going to do cardio & weights? Doing the weights first, then cardio will burn more body fat. With the weights you'll deplete your calories from energy (glycogen), then all that's left to burn for the cardio is calories from fat (stored calories).

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Not eating for hours (i.e. 1-2 meals/day), your body goes into starvation mode.
Starvation Mode:
1) Your metabolism (rate at which you burn calories) slows down.
2) When you finally do eat, your body stores the calories as fat (stored energy).

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Strength train your ENTIRE body (lower, core & upper). Neglecting certain areas causes muscle imbalances (weaker get weaker, stronger get stronger) which can lead to injuries.