Cherries

Fresh cherries are a great summertime treat that fits well in a good diet.  High in fibre and Vitamin C and antioxidants, cherries make for a good healthy dessert.  Like many fruits, they are high in sugar so be reasonable about how many you eat at each meal.  New research suggests that cherry consumption may reduce delayed onset muscle soreness.  All good reasons to look forward to seeing fresh cherries in the store.

Tom

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Coming Soon - Training for Hunting Season

You only have so much time to hunt - so you need to hunt hard.  Being able to hunt hard means training hard.  If you want to work the hills and swamps for that trophy animal in October, you had better start training in July.

Keep checking back here for a great training plan that will get you in top shape for hunting.

Tom

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Get Ready for the Beach

Now is the time to start getting ready for summer.  That layer of winter weight may not just melt off as fast as it used to.  Just because there are plenty of overweight people at the beach doesn't mean that you have to be one of them.  Its April - you can get in much better shape by July...if you start now.

Weight Training

Ridiculous

You want muscle.  Lean, healthy, calorie-burning muscle tissue.  Being totally fat-free without any muscle is just wrong.  To get muscle you need to jack iron or find some other way to overload your muscles. 

Leg Work
Currently, I really like the Decline Leg Press.  I blast my clients' legs with this machine and use it heavily myself.

This exercise blasts quads, glutes and hamstrings.  This is the foundation exercise to get your beach body.  Do a few warm-up sets with light weight and then start stacking on the plates until you're down to tough sets of 6 reps.

Standing Calf Press

Calf work is next.  Hit your calves with 4 sets of 15 reps on the Standing Calf Press machine.  These will burn...and they will pay off.

Chest Work

Incline Dumbbell Press is a nice exercise to develop your pecs.  If you've been doing flat bench press all winter, this exercise will fill-out the upper chest area.  Grab some moderate weight dumbbells (at least 20lbs).  Rock back onto an incline bench and pump out 4 sets of 10 reps.

Back Work

Seated Cable Row works the lats nicely.  Lats are important to tone and shape the back.  Pictured above is the less common single-handed cable row.  Below is the more common double handed cable row.  Try both for variety.  Go heavy - 3 sets of 8 reps.

Shoulders
Great delts are critical to any physique.  The foundational shoulder exercise is Military Press.  You can use a barbell or dumbbells for this exercise.  Keep your back straight.  Lock your elbows out at the top.  Do 3 honest sets of 12 reps.

The Big Guns

Biceps are fun to work and usually get a lot of attention.  Here is one of my favourite bicep exercises; the Concentration Curl.  One of my clients, Bridget, hates this exercise because she feels like a douchebag doing them.  Frankly, they have made her biceps grow more than any other single bicep exercise that we have used in her training.  Give them a shot.  3 sets of 10 reps.

 



Triceps

The Dumbbell Kickback is a fantastic exercise for triceps.  Aim for 4 sets of 12 reps.  Go nice and slow so that you can really feel it in the muscle.

Abs
Try Knees to Elbows.  This is a wicked ab workout.  Hang from a bar.  Now swing your knees up to touch your elbows.  10 reps should be enough for you.  Keep trying to add one more each time you work out.

Cardio

Cursed cardio.  So hard to get started...so necessary.  Get moving and sustain the motion for about 30 minutes.  Run, swim, bike.  Do something that will get you breathing hard and sweating (that you can sustain for 30 minutes).  This complements your weight training but is not licence to gobble pizza. Do cardio 3-6 times a week depending on how much fat you need to lose.

Nutrition

Your diet is the single most important factor in how you will look on the beach.  Be frugal with what you eat.  Eat clean.  Fresh fruit and vegetables.  Lean meat.  No crap.  No pop (even "diet" pop).  Eat less than you really think you can.  Make peace with hunger.  Drink water.  Lots of water.  Eat lots of fibre. 

Tom

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Quads of Steel

The Quadriceps is a group of 4 muscles on the front of your thigh.  They are responsible for knee extension and hip flexion.  These are typically large powerful muscles that can do a lot of work.  Nice quads are impressive and will give you an advantage in almost any sport.

Leg Extension

This exercise isolates the quads.  There are countless varieties of machines that do this job.  Make sure that you do a good warm-up first (light weight with 2 sets of 15-20 reps at least).    Once you're warmed-up, start ramping up the weight.  Aim for a total of six honest sets.  If you experience sharp pain at or near the knee - stop! The tough sets should be down to 8 reps.

Front Squats

Front Squats are a great barbell squat variation that hits quads really hard.  Rest the barbell on your front delts.  Keep your back straight and your heels glued to the floor.  Go for 4 sets of 8.

 

Wall Sit



The Wall Sit is a great static exercise if you just hold your back against the wall and hold it as long as you can.  If you have a stability ball, you can squish that between your back and the wall and roll the ball slowly up and down.  Try to hold these until your quads are burning.

Lunges

Lunges, especially weighted lunges, are great for building quads (and glutes and hamstrings).  Try Walking Lunges if you have the room.  Go for 3 sets of 15.

Cardio

Cycling is a great form of cardio that really works the quads.  Work this exercise into your routine.

Tom

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