The most Essential And Imperative Steps To Take Before Beginning Any Workout Routine

When most people begin their journey towards getting in shape the biggest mistake I see is everyone jumping straight into heavy weight training or explosive workouts. The problem with this mental approach is it simply leads to one thing, “injuries!” What many people forget is when you haven’t worked out or trained for a long time your tendons become very fragile, your muscles get tighter especially if you have a sedentary lifestyle and most of your entire entire core which is located right behind the abdominal wall becomes very weak.   So when you jump right into heavy weight training or workouts that involve explosive movements, you don’t realize that you are lifting heavy weights on fragile tendons, tight muscles and a weak core. Now what this leads to in a short period of time is unfortunately a torn tendon or a strained tendon, a lower back injury due to having a weak core because if your core is weak your lower back ends up doing most of the work, (a common problem many are very unfamiliar with) and in most cases muscle strains because you are simply placing more stress on muscles that are already tight. All this leads to sending you back home for a couple months and what you have gained is absolutely nothing but an injury. So let’s go over some VERY important steps to take when you are beginning your journey to a better body.

Before I start, I want you to picture the foundation of a building when it is first being constructed. The proper planning is first laid out, after wards concrete needs to be laid down along with pipe and wire work and then the frame begins to be put up once a, “SOLID FOUNDATION” has been built. You will never see a master architect jumping straight into building just walls and windows, it takes proper planning and execution, if not you will have a building with many flaws until one day something gives out and it all comes tumbling down. Now when a building is perfectly constructed, its stands tall and strong in the face of time! Just like your body, you must first begin with the, “FOUNDATION” first, meaning you must develop everything from the inside out such as your tendons, flexibility and core strength. Once these key components are up to par you can then begin to increase the intensity of your workouts.

When training to strengthen tendons instead of full range movements you must focus on shorter range movements that put more of an emphasis on the ligaments and tendons rather than the muscle bellies. A great article that goes more in dept on ligament and tendon training can be found on www.bodybuilding.com By David Robinson titled, “Learn how to build great tendon and ligament strength and enhance power and overall.” He also gives a great program to incorporate into your workouts that can really increase tendon strength and decrease the chances of risking a tendon injury. Flexibility is another very important component to building a powerful foundation simply because it alleviates postural deviations! Which means your body mechanics and posture is poor due to the tightening of muscles. The tighter your muscles become the more they begin to shape and direct our bodies in unnatural ways. When our bodies begin to tighten up in areas such as the hips from sitting down all day we then begin to feel pain in our lower backs. Now imagine going straight into a gym and starting a heavy leg work out on tight hip and leg muscles, it’s only a matter of time until an injury occurs. So proper stretching and flexibility should be one of the first goals you should execute when first beginning to workout. Lastly is core training, I can’t say it with more confidence as to how important core training is to anyone’s goal and to ANY athlete! Your core is located right behind the abdominal wall and it is one of the first places where all movement begins and is the center of your body. To put simply, it is the rock and foundation of your body. An easy way to work your core is simply by absorbing your stomach in and holding it while controlling your breathing. By doing this simple exercise you are already strengthening your core! It can be done while watching TV, sitting down at work and even driving. It should become a habit to keep your core nice and tight and to absorb your abdominal muscles in when beginning any exercise. Several other core exercises can be found basically anywhere online or in most health & fitness magazines and you should familiarize yourself with various core exercises. Once your core is strengthened you should then move into abdominal exercises. Having a powerful core can also take tension off your lower back and can either alleviate or solve many lower back problems.

By strengthening your tendons/ligaments along with stretching and building a powerful core, you will not only create a great foundation but more importantly these simple exercises will lead to an injury free future that will have you on the right track to building a stronger body in the safest and most effective way possible.

Abbas Khan

Los Angeles

Personal Trainer

www.bodybykhan.com

     

Foods ideal for any diet and weight loss regimen

                When beginning a diet it can be tough simply due to the cravings and sweet tooth most of us experience while dieting. What motivates and inspires people to continue their diet is seeing results! Now in order to see great results you must first mentally prepare yourself and stay disciplined all the way through or you’ll only be cheating yourself. There are essential foods you want to make sure you include in a diet. Once a diet is well put and properly managed, results can be amazing!

                Let’s first begin with a very important thing to remember and that is portion control. Without having to get too scientific or mathematical you should simply remember that your largest portions should be proteins and greens and your smallest portions carbohydrates. Also, when dieting be sure not to consume complex carbohydrates such as rice, potatoes, pastas and breads before bed time. This is because at the end of the day most of us are unwinding and throwing our feet up from a long day. If too many carbohydrates are consumed the body will take what it needs and convert the rest into fat if it’s not being burned off. So this is why you want to only stick to proteins and greens at least 4-5 hours before bedtime. Next we want to go over important foods to stick with when beginning a diet and integrate it into a new diet plan.

                 First, let’s start with the carbohydrates that should be consumed during a diet. Carbs such as oats, whole grains, and brown rice should be integrated into any diet plan because of its high fiber content.  Additionally, these types of carbs provide a steady release of energy throughout a busy day. A study done by the Wheat Food Council titled “Why eat whole grains” found that, “Whole grains offer vitamins and minerals, plus high levels of antioxidants and other healthy plant-based nutrients. Whole grains contain protective antioxidants in amounts near or exceeding those in fruits and vegetables. They also provide some unique antioxidants not found in other foods. Studies have shown that eating more whole grains may help reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. New studies published in 2005 and 2006 show that whole grains may lower triglycerides, improve insulin control, help in weight management, and slow the build-up of arterial plaque.” www.wheatfoods.org Carbohydrates are vital to any diet so that you can have the right amount of energy to function throughout your day. Now let’s get into our proteins, it’s important to have proteins in any diet due to its ability to maintaining and rebuilding tissues along with its importance in helping us make and maintain our enzymes, hormones, bones, muscles and skin. Good proteins to include are your lean meats such as turkey, chicken, fishes and even egg whites. One might ask, well how about beef?  Beef is not a bad source of protein but can be when taken in excess on a daily basis. Beef is good to have in a diet maybe twice a week because it is a good source of protein but more importantly it provides good fats that our body needs. Lastly are our greens! Vegetables are a very important source of nutrients to have in a diet due to it’s high fiber content, vitamins and antioxidants. Greens are also great because they are low in calories and sugars. So make sure you get in your greens ladies and gentleman. Another very important thing to remember is to stay away from foods high in saturated fats (basically anything fried) and drinks high in sugars as well.

                So if you simply want to lose weight or get into shape, just make sure to add your good carbs, proteins and greens.  As far as portion sizes, be sure to have more proteins and greens and your smallest portion should be carbohydrates. So following the simple steps and recommendations suggested, you should be able to follow a diet you enjoy that will benefit you in reaching your health and fitness goals!!   

                                                                                    Abbas Khan

                                                                                    Los Angeles

                                                                                    Personal Trainer

                                                                                    www.bodybykhan.com

                                                                                                            

                                                                                                 

                                                                                                                                                    

Working out in Los Angeles

      The recent months have been full of change for me, one of which being the switching of my personal training business from the Orange County area to the Los Angeles area, what a difference! In the midst of training for an upcoming bodybuilding show in September, my diet and cardio have had to become exponentially more strict and intense. Just like many of you out there, I too dread the thought of waking up to an hour of Stairmaster or treadmill training, particularly before breakfast. Who wouldn’t want to start off with a nice stack of strawberry pancakes and a t-bone steak from the nearest IHOP! Alas, it’s not going to happen for me, at least for now. But the one thing that I can do, and it’s something I wanted to share with all of you, is the ability to change up my boring cardio routine, all with the help of my new location in Los Angeles. You see, there’s nothing like getting in a good workout in an environment that motivates you and gives you the thrill and exhilaration that you won’t find in any indoor gym. By taking my workout outdoors, I’ve been able to eliminate the dreaded hour of morning cardio staring at the clock, watching the seconds tick by. Here, I’d like to share with you some of my favorite environments, all nearby in beautiful Los Angeles. 

     For those of you that enjoy the beach, nothing beats a morning workout near the beautiful California coast in Santa Monica. Near the Santa Monica pier there is an area complete with rings, pull up and push up stations, a rope to climb, as well as room for many other exercises. For me, I like to begin my work out on the rings, work my way through the bar, and finish it off with a grueling rope climb that challenges my upper body strength like nothing else in any indoor gym. After repeating this circuit 4 times, I complete my workout with a 2-3 mile run on the shore, enjoying the coastal breeze and the sound of crashing waves distracting me from my body’s physical stress.

     Next, I’d like to mention the one and only UCLA stadium which is open to the public. I enjoy coming here on weekends because nothing beats a hardcore workout in the college campus of one of our very own LA sports champions. Starting off with 8 sets of 100 yard sprints with a 1 minute rest in between sets, I get my heart rate going to prepare for the intensity yet to come. I then strap on a weighted vest and head for the stairs. Half way up the stairs, and back down for a total of 10 tiring sets. Does it hurt…HECK YES! But the results are beyond worth it. The bars and ropes at the end of the football field conclude my work out here with about 3 circuits. For those of you that are just beginning, start off at a slower pace, this is an advanced workout and to prevent injury, listen to your own body.

     Lastly, here’s an activity that we all can remember enjoying as kids, plain and simple bike riding. There’s nothing quite like the simplicity of riding a bicycle, something that for many of us can take us back to pleasant childhood memories of the days when we had not a care in the world. As children, many of us ride bikes for hours on end, never watching the clock to see when it would be time to stop, and most of us not finding it tiring or physically draining. I thought to myself, why ride a bike in a stuffy gym when I can buy a real bike and pedal away with the scenery of downtown Los Angeles beside me. With a good mp3 player and my new bike, my 7 am cardio session flew by me before I even knew it! Since my first ride, I can’t help but get my cycling in twice a week, you simply can’t get over the excitement!

     We see now that you don’t have to live near green pastures, forests or mountains to get a good quality outdoor workout. Whether you live in Los Angeles or New York City, the metropolitan areas give us plenty of opportunities to challenge ourselves physically and mentally. No longer do we have to think that in order to get a good workout you MUST go visit a gym, this isn’t the case. As with anything else, repetitiveness gets old and the last thing you want is to get bored and tired of exercising. The environment you place yourselves in for your workouts will make a huge difference in your mental state which will eventually affect your intensity in your workouts. I challenge you all to take a look around your local surroundings and find a way for you to challenge yourself physically outside of your local gym. For those of you in the LA area, I highly recommend the locations mentioned above. Take a step out of your comfort zone and get out there like our great ancestors once did and have some fun!

Circuit training for effective and continuous weight loss

 After more than a decade in the health and fitness industry, one of the most common goals that I come across with clients is weight loss. Easy to understand coming from a country where 30% of our nation’s population is considered obese. So how do we solve this problem? Well, it’s difficult to tell where to start, just pick up any magazine at your local grocery store only to find 5-10 different fad diets and several “ways to lose weight fast” quick fix type solutions. With so much mixed media it’s not hard to see why there’s so much confusion! It’s overwhelming, confusing, and very frustrating for the average individual to sift through countless pages of advice only to come back and report to me “I’ve been doing cardio for months and I just don’t seem to be getting anywhere”. My goal here is to clear up some of that confusion and present a weight loss solution for the average individual looking to just keep fit and toned, not to become a bodybuilder, and not to run the next marathon, and it’s called circuit training.

Many have heard the term before, few understand it. What most people fail to see when embarking on a weight loss journey is that the absolute WORST thing you can do is do the same workout day after day. Jumping on a treadmill for 30 minutes keeping the same pace for the entire half hour will not yield maximum results, plain and simple. The human body is very intelligent and you won’t fool it into burning stored fat just by jumping on a treadmill for 30 minutes. Not to mention this routine can get very boring very quickly! Circuit training is an effective fat burning technique used by trainers all over the world based on the basic principle of “muscle confusion”. Keeping your 30 minute workout diverse in movements and heart rates will thrust your body into what we call “fat burning mode”, enabling the individual to get the most possible out of those 30 minutes. Incorporating 2-3 different workout routines with little to no rest in between is extremely effective at raising one’s heart rate and these exercises can be done simply with your own bodyweight. Furthermore, circuit training never allows your body time to adapt. The body, being the complex machine that it is, always tries to find ways to adapt and take the paths of least resistance. Because circuit training is constantly changing, your body never gets a chance to adapt and revert to homeostasis, rather stays in that “fat burning zone”.

So instead of jumping on the treadmill at your local gym or sitting on a recumbent bike for 30 minutes, give circuit training a try! It’s guaranteed to take you out of that plateau and into results you never might have anticipated! Not only will you be burning fat, raising metabolism, and conditioning your cardiovascular system, but you’ll also be achieving healthy muscle tone and definition. Stop being the average Joe or Jane and try something new to take your health and fitness routine to a new level!

The Non-Surgical Option for Sports Related Injuries

     As any competitive athlete can tell you, suffering from a sport related injury can be quite an earth shattering tragedy. Most of us deal with injuries at some point in our lives, but to those competing or preparing for competition in any sport, it becomes more than just a minor hindrance. Regardless of the magnitude of the injury, sports injuries can not only impede your progress, but can even take you out of your sport all together, crushing the athlete’s dreams. How do I know this you ask? A few years ago I was diagnosed with what is known as “golfer’s elbow”, basically an overused tendon within the inner elbow causing severe pain even to lift a small 5 pound dumbbell. As a competitive bodybuilder preparing for the all-natural Mr. California title, this was heartbreaking. I found myself losing everything that I had trained so hard for and it didn’t take long for deep depression to set in as I watched my physique drop from a rock hard 200+ pounds to a staggering 175. I stood by in agony as the Mr. California title slipped away from me, but I wasn’t going to give up just yet.

     

      Hours upon hours of research led me to try several different approaches to attempt to fix my injury. I started with a lot of the more commonly known “cures”, acupuncture, sports rehabilitation centers, cortisone shots, and of course the bucket loads of ibuprofen 800 that my doctor would prescribe me to alleviate the pain. Nothing worked, after months and months all that would happen was a temporary masking of the pain, but never a solution to the root cause of my problem. I was starting to lose hope, until one day I got a recommendation from a friend that made me raise an eyebrow. The suggestion came from his trainer, something called Platelet Rich Plasma, something I’ve never heard before. Admittedly, I was skeptical. After all, I had tried so many things and was hesitant to get my hopes up only to get disappointed again. However, realizing that not only had I lost 38 lbs. of hard earned muscle, but my depression was just spiraling out of control, I decided to give it one last try.

            

      I walked into my first appointment, anxious and nervous about the whole situation. Was this really going to work? Or was I walking into my next disappointment. I had done my research before going in, and despite my skepticism, what I understood about the process made sense. The doctor explained the procedure as such: PRP is done through a series of injections within the specific area of an injury. Your blood is drawn in preparation for the procedure, and it’s then put into a centrifuge machine that will separate your growth cells from your blood. Those growth cells are then re-injected into the injured area. Because the body is able to recognize its own growth cells, it reacts quickly and begins the process of healing. In the absence of PRP therapy, the body attempts to heal an injury on its own, however, it can only do so much before it stops. PRP therapy restarts the body’s healing mechanisms essentially. I went forward with the treatment and to my honest surprise, the results were almost immediate. After two sessions of PRP therapy, my pain was almost completely gone and I was able to return to the gym at almost full capacity within weeks. For any athlete, this is truly miraculous! Being able to walk into a weight room and pick up a set of weights with no pain was genuinely one of the happiest days of my life, all thanks to this fairly new procedure!

            

      PRP Therapy is an option for many athletes and non-athletes alike, helping rehabilitate numerous types of injuries. For those of your suffering from pain due to injuries or accidents, consider further researching PRP Therapy before pursuing surgery or other more invasive routes. It’s safe, and natural (considering you’re using your body’s own cells), and will definitely take out recovery time that you would need should you have surgery. I can honestly say that I would not be putting this out there if it didn’t mean this much to me, and anything that can help an injured bodybuilder get back in the gym pain free is definitely worth a second glance! It worked for me, it can work for you too!