RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Having strong abdominals, not just a "six-pack," is essential to protecting your spine & neck from injury. Do this not just on "ab day," but throughout the day by pulling your ab musles in tight with every exercise you do and all day long. This does not mean holding your breath, it means pulling your ab muscles toward your back/spine. It takes some practice to get used to, but you'll get it soon enough. One way to practice, is to keep saying "ssshhh" like you're telling someone to be quiet. You'll notice each time you "ssshhh" your ab muscles are pulled back. Keep your ab muscles tight on every exercise you do, while you're in the car, and while sitting watching TV/computer/at work and soon you'll have a strong midsection (i.e. which means less injury and better posture).

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Nutritional supplements WOMEN should NEVER take:

1) PROTEIN SHAKES/BARS loaded with calories/fat/carbs/sugars. Many women are afraid to take protein in fear of becoming "bulky." Certain protein supplements are designed to do just that, because they're meant for bodybuilders looking to build mass. Then there are ones specifically for women/those looking to be lean & toned (Ex: ISOPURE Zero Carb by Nature's Best). Consuming protein after you exercise (both cardio & weights) is essential to seeing results quicker because it helps build LEAN muscle tissue, and the more you have the more calories you'll burn daily on top of what you burn during exercise. Your protein drink should be no more than 160cal, less than 1g of fat, 0carbs, 0g of sugar.

2) CREATINE is a cell volumizer, which means the larger your cells the more water they require. Thus, you'll look and feel constantly bloated.

3) TESTOSTERONE/GROWTH HORMONES can make women sterile. Unlike in men, the side effects are irreversible for women. Such side effects include, loss of menstrual cycle, unnatural body hair growth, change in voice, loss of head hair, enlargened clitoris, etc.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Want to burn more calories when you exercise? Answer: COMPOUND MOVEMENTS. This means, instead of just doing squats, grab a pair of dumbells, and as you're coming up from the squat do a shoulder press with the dumbells. Instead of just doing lunges, do dumbell bicep curls as you're going down into the lunge. Incorporating upper & lower body movements will increase the intensity of your exercise and thus lead to more calorie burn. Kicking up the intensity is the key to seeing results faster!

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Drinking water during exercise is essential for seeing results. The more you sweat the more water you draw out of your cells, which dehydrates you and makes you tired faster. By staying hydrated, you can exercise longer with more intensity, which means quicker results.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Might seem trivial, but how you breath during exercise is important. Breathing through your nose instead of your mouth helps stabilize your heart rate which will increase your endurance. The result? You can exercise longer, burn more calories and get results faster. Don't get discouraged if it feels unnatural at first; it takes about six to eight times exercising to perfect.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Start limiting the amount of caffeine you consume each day. Not only does it affect your central nervous system, but it draws calcium out of your bones. This is especially dangerous for women, because women are at a higher risk for osteoporosis (weakening of bones which leads to fractures) than men. Be sure to get 1,000mg of calcium every day from foods (low-cal cheese/yogurt, skim milk, collard greens, spinach) to counteract the caffeine.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Becoming/staying lean & fit is all about calories consumed vs calories burned each day. That means portion control with your meals & snacks, and it's as easy as looking at your hand. Make a fist, that should be the size of the LEAN protein (white meat/fish/eggs) on your plate. Next open your hand and look at the size of your palm, that should be the size of the carb on your plate. Finally, look at your thumb, from the the tip of your thumb to the center is how much fat (oils/cream/dressing/etc) should be on your plate.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

There is no better "fat burner" than taking a WHEY ISOLATE PROTEIN (Ex: ISOPURE Zero Carb by Nature's Best) after both cardio & weight training. With exercise, especially weights, you break down muscle tissue. To regenerate more lean muscle fibers you need to consume a whey isolate protein immediately after (no more than 30mins after!).

The more lean muscle tissue you have the more calories you will burn all day long on top of what you burn during exercise. To give you a better idea, 1lb of muscle burns 50cal at rest, so if you put on 10lbs of LEAN muscle (NOT mass ladies) your muscles will burn an extra 500cal a day! To lose body fat/get lean & tone you need to turn your body into a calorie burning machine. It's all about calories consumed vs calories burned each day.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

If you surround yourself with temptation, you'll be more likely to give into it. If your house has junk food, you're going to eat it. Fill your fridge/cabinets with healthy options instead. At restaurants, tell the waiter to keep the bread. If it's in sight, you're more likely to indulge. Out of sight out of mind!

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration does NOT regulate nutritional supplements unless they find a product to be harmful to the public (i.e. they banned the previous formula of Hydroxcut 5.1.09 because they linked it to one death & heart/liver/kidney damage).

Since none of it is controlled by the FDA, these companies can make any "miracle body changing" claims about their products & can alter the nutrition facts on the label (i.e. Muscle Milk by Cytosport lists a lower fat content than what is really inside, and lists a higher protein content than what is inside).

Choose reputable companies (Nature's Best, Optimum Nutrition, BSN, EAS), and avoid bad companies (CellTech, MuscleTech, Cytosport, Gaspari).

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

How many times a day are you eating bread/pasta/rice/oat carbs? These are HIGH GLYCEMIC carbs which digest quickly and if not burned are turned into body fat. Eat these ONLY after exercise to replenish your energy (glycogen) reserve. Eat fruit/veggie (LOW GLYCEMIC) carbs the rest of the day.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Want those sexy Summer abs? Follow our RIO Fitness "AB COMMANDMENTS" to help get you there:

1) Strength train your ENTIRE midsection (obliques, lower & upper abdominals), finishing with a lower back exercise to fully complete your core.

2) Do NOT work your abs every day. They're a muscle like any other so they need time to recover & regenerate. Give 48hrs in between, so if you did them on a Wed, next time would be Sat.

3) Do cardio properly so you're burning calories from fat & not energy (glycogen). This means no more than 30mins, and the cardio must be done in intervals (Ex: 60sec run then 60sec walk for 25mins).

4) Track how many calories you consume daily. Consuming more calories than you burn daily will increase body fat production.

5) Limit HIGH GLYCEMIC CARBS (breads/pasta/rice/oats) to ONLY after exercise. These are carbs which digest quickly, so if they are consumed throughout the day and not burned they'll be turned into body fat. LOW GLYCEMIC CARBS (fruits/veggies) are the carbs to be eaten the rest of the day.

6) Limit your sodium intake to no more than 1200mg/day. Sodium increases water levels in the body, making you look & feel bloated. Consume foods high in potassium (i.e. bananas/spinach/apricots/beans) daily to lower sodium levels in the body naturally.

7) Limit/avoid alcohol consumption. Alcohol triggers the body fat production hormone cortisol to begin production.

8) Limit your stress. Increased stress levels also increases levels of cortisol.

9) Get your rest. Lack of adequate rest each night increases levels of cortisol.

10) Remember, just focusing on your abs won't give you a nice midsection, you need to strength train from head to toe. Especially do not neglect large muscle groups (back/lower body), because developing those will help you burn more cal/day & increase testosterone production which is the hormone that helps us burn body fat quickly.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

The calorie counters & heart rate sensors on your cardio machines are inaccurate. The machine is calculating from a preset math equation and by how fast (revolutions) the machine is going. When you're doing all that cardio, and the machines says 832cal burned, it's probably more like 287cal. This is definitely a problem for those who will then indulge in food/alcohol because they think they burned so many calories.

The amount of calories burned is determined by age, gender, body fat % and you enter none of that into the machine except weight & age. Men burn calories faster than women, so the machine doesn't know your gender. You enter your weight, but how does it know if you're 160lbs but only 5'0", or 220 but 6'5", it doesn't.

The most accurate way to know exactly how many calories you're burning and where your heart rate is at is with a heart rate monitor. Another benefit of exercising with a HR monitor is to track your progression or degression. It's a helpful tool to show you if you need to kick up the intensity, because let's say last week you burned 510cal doing lower body, but this week only 346cal, that means you need to change it up & push harder!

They range from $20-$200, but you can find a quality one at Walmart/Sports Authority for cheap. Polar is a quality brand. Once you start exercising with one you won't want to without one!

Visit http://www.polarusa.com/ for more info!

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

If you're trying to get back into shape, please please PLEASE don't get obsessed with the scale and weighing yourself every day. It is possible for the scale number not to move but you've lost body fat/inches (i.e. you've gained muscle which weighs more by volume). How you look/feel and how your clothes fit are better measures of success than the scale.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

You have to stretch after exercise! Not only will it make you more flexible & prevent injury, but it is critical to seeing results quickly. Stretching elongates, your muscle which means better blood flow through it. Better blood flow equals better protein absorption, which means better muscle recovery/building; thus the more calories you'll burn all day long on top of what you burn with exercise.

You should stretch after cardio and after weights. After cardio especially stretch your entire lower body (quadriceps, glutes, hips, inner/outer thighs, hamstrings, calves, etc.).
Here's a great site to see every muscle group of the body and corresponding stretches for that group: http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html

To lose body fat you need to do "violence" to your body fat cells so they release their contents to be consumed by your muscles. Kicking up the intensity is the key to seeing results quickly! Change up your routine, get off your cardio & weight machines, and push yourself with something hard! Don't be afraid to step out of your comfort zone, because it's only then you'll start to see real changes in your body.

How to train like RIO Fitness with your cardio:

(Beginners) Find a football field, and jog from goaline to goaline for 60sec, then walk from goaline to goaline 60sec. Do these intervals of run/walk every 60sec for just 25mins to burn calories from fat.

(Advanced) Find a football field, and sprint to the 50yd yard with either a parachute/weighted vest/ weighted backpack, then release the weight and sprint the remaining 50yds. Then walk from goaline to goaline 60sec. Do these intervals of sprint/walk every 60sec for just 25mins to burn calories from fat.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

If you don't eat for hours & hours (i.e 1-2 meals/day) your insulin (blood sugar) levels begin to plummet. When you finally eat they spike. This up & down causes body fat gain. Eating 5-6 SMALL meals/snacks a day, eating every 2-3hrs will keep your metabolism high & keep your insulin levels stable preventing body fat gain.

*For the average individual: Your meals should be 300-350cal max, and your snacks should be 100-150cal max.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

To really start seeing results: EVERY single time you exercise do something different!

If you did cardio yesterday on machines, do it today by running/walking up & down a flight of stairs, or rollerblading, jumping rope, whatever you like as long as you constantly change it up.

If you did strength training on machines yesterday, use free weights today, or medicine balls/resistance bands/BOSUs to get your weight training in.

When you do something different every time you do cardio & weights, you will constantly "shock" your muscles into creating more lean muscle tissue which will help you burn more calories all day long on top of what you burn during exercise!

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

It's May 3, which means we're DAYS away from Summer 2010 not just weeks anymore! A simple, quick thing you can do to start getting in shape with the brief time remaining is give up booze.
Alcohol:
1) Triggers the body fat production cortisol to begin producing body fat.
2) Lowers levels of testosterone which is the hormone that helps us burn body fat quicker.
3) Obviously has calories, and since losing body body fat is all about burning more calories than you consume daily, it can really hinder you seeing results.

So in other words, skip it! At least for the next few weeks of May! Your abs especially, will thank you later!