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A few have asked to blog a little more on eating eggs. To tell the truth all the nutritional info about eggs was revealed in the previous post. But I will elaborate on past experience. I remember when eggs where the “whole food”. Then they became the “bad egg” because they have cholesterol. After that it was all right to eat them again because the lecithin in the egg white countered or balanced out the cholesterol’s badness.

This is possibly where the egg white omelets and three whites to one yellow ratio came from. The latest was it’s all right to eat eggs just make sure they’re cooked and be careful of the cholesterol. Maybe I’m different, probably more like most than not. When I was growing up a half dozen eggs for breakfast was regularly was not uncommon. Even when I was in my twenties I consumed most days for breakfast, three to four eggs scrambled or fried. Always I ate the entire egg, that’s four egg whites and four egg yellows. I used to consider the egg yellow “liquid Sunshine”.

As you can see from my Post: Why Do They Only Eat Egg Whites the yellow contains more nutrients than the white, as much if not more protein proportionately by volume, and combined with the white makes it pretty much a complete food. Even now since I usually work out first thing in the morning, After my after workout shake when I get home I immediately have breakfast with three whole eggs over easy with when available no more than a half of sweet potato for a quality protein , nutritional meal and a good carbohydrate to fuel the muscle.

Now a word of caution, there are those of us that have a cholesterol problem or susceptible, for those of you that fall in this category, do not throw caution to the wind. Here is where you need to consult your physician and ask for a blood lab workup. These usually will tell the doctor if you have a cholesterol problem. And of course the older we get the more of a concern this becomes, take care of your heart, after all it’s MUSCLE.

Why is it most fitness experts tell you to eat egg white omelets or don’t eat the egg yolk. One would think the yellow of the egg is too fattening. When in most part they say it has too much cholesterol and is not good for you. While it may be high in cholesterol and saturated fat it is a virtual multi-vitamin store. Even those that do tell you that the yellow has healthy zinc for your body still recommend one egg yolk to three egg whites for an egg white omelet.

The whole egg itself when eaten in it’s entirety is one of the most complete foods going. One gets the protein, minerals and vitamins necessary in todays diet. The egg white has slightly more protein than the yolk only because there is more white than yellow by volume. On the other hand the yolk contains in addition to protein, iron, calcium, zinc, copper, phosphorous,manganese,potassium, selenium, thiamin, riboflavin and most all the B vitamins. Let’s not forget it also contains Vitamins A, D, E, K and the Carotenoids, lutein and zeaxanthin. To get a better break down o n the nutrients go here.

Besides making most foods taste better that have egg as an ingredient together with the white you get a much more complete nutritional source. One other thing to consider and that’s the fact that the yolk also contains a excellent source of essential fatty acids the long-chain omega-3 fatty acid DHA, which aids in proper brain function.

Eat healthy and enjoy breakfast more, just leave out the home fries and white toast.

James Bolduc

MrPowerFitness

PowerFitnessSecrets.com

Increase the effectiveness of your workout by doing multiple high rep sets with minimal rest. The reason why it works is because it increases the blood supply to the muscles. By increasing the supply you also increase the supply of nourishment to the muscles. Provided that you provided your body with quality nutrition and supplements. And since this causes the muscles to rebuild bigger and better it also increases the metabolic rate and burns fat more efficiently.

This doesn’t mean you have to be a body builder to get these same benefits. No matter what adding lean muscle to one’s frame not only improves your health, looks, and as mentioned previously your calcium serum levels, it also increases your fat burning ability.

The best method to utilize this technique goes like this:

To add muscle you will want to do four sets of at least four exercises per body part. Don’t try to do every body part in a day’s session. I usually do one body part per day, such as, Chest, Back, Shoulders, Arms and Legs. Stomach you can add in with any of the other body parts at the end of your session. Add weight progressively with each set from ten reps down to three. After you have completed the heavy lifting and before your stomach sets if you are doing them that specific day, you are going to choose one exercise for that body part. Now for this exercise you will do seven sets at a weight you can handle for fifteen reps each set. Between each set rest only thirty second and no more than thirty seconds. This is similar to creating an aerobic effect and will increase and speed up the blood flow to that body part.

This will also create a tremendous pumped up effect, letting you know it’s working. Now feed those muscles. This will increase the nutrient supply to your recently taxed muscles. Watch and see how quickly your body will get sculpted.

James Bolduc

MrPowerFitness

PowerFitnessSecrets.com

Everyone wants the quick fix. From minimal time exercising to fast food. Then there’s the aerobic craze, by a video and dance in front of your T.V. set. While you might lose a few pound of fat, you also lose muscle tissue. I can’t say this enough add muscle increase metabolism. so not only do you lose muscle mass but eventually your metabolism will eventually begin to slacken.

Now about that benefit. The great thing is that it especially benefits  a wide range of groups. That’s from mother’s that recently had babies to women after their menstruation. But the group it benefits most is the elderly. Not to mention every one over thirty. You see as we age just like your hormone levels begin to drop after thirty so does calcium production. Why do you think osteoporosis is so common as we get older.

If most people over thirty did resistance training coupled with a proper diet they wouldn’t need prescription medicines for their osteoporosis. By lifting weights you can stimulate your body to increase calcium production. Some of the systems in your body that use calcium are the heart, muscles, skeletal, the nervous system, the kidneys and the gastrointestinal system. Each of these systems demand a specific calcium balance, which are regulated by the calcium found in your blood, delivered by the circulatory system.

When these systems are low the blood takes calcium from your bones to maintain the calcium serum levels in the blood in order to service all those systems. Because of the relationship between the muscles and bones weight training stimulates your skeletal system to produce new calcium. By combining a proper diet with more than enough sources of dietary calcium and a good weight training routine everybody even the elderly can have a better and healthier lifestyle.

It seems that 4 minute exercises are all the rage these days. But in actuality have been around since 1996. That’s when research scientist Tabata, for who the Tabata method is named after, discovered that by doing eight sets of high intensity exercise for twenty second durations with ten second rest intervals would put you in both aerobic and anaerobic states at the same time.

Now every fitness guru promotes some variation of it. To be honest it does fit the bill for the majority of people interested in either staying fit or losing weight. Specially in today’s hectic pace everyone keeps. This bill of sell targets most every-one’s needs, desires and wants.

• Time:  One of the chief attributes, can be done in four minutes.
• Effectiveness:  Done right this will increase your metabolic rate and get you in shape.
• Cost: You can do this in your own home with the equipment god gave you.
• Variety:  Although one should focus on whole body exercises there are plenty of  combination’s that work

However due to the intense depletion by the end of the four minutes you won’t be able to do this everyday or even five days a week. Chances are even if you do the recommended maximum times a week, three, you probably are not going to look forward to doing this too often. And that’s the one draw back. When done right and at the end of four minute you are huffing and puffing like a chain smoker finishing a marathon race. In addition to that you’ll likely feel like heaving your guts out and wish you could.

I can attest to all this and it’s effectiveness. Even though it’s rough on you and your pride, the four minute exercise is a great one to have in your arsenal and one of my favorites. That being said you’re not going to build a lot of muscle with this exercise regimen. Not that everyone needs or wants to be a bodybuilder. But increasing some muscle mass will definitely hike your metabolism and make you look healthier. Even with the use of weights and going as heavy as you can, provided you can complete the eight sets within four minutes, you’re not going to increase muscle mass or strength. It’s just that to do that you need to lift heavy to your max in eight reps to three or four reps, even one maxed out rep to gain muscle mass. And to do this you need a minimum of sixty seconds rest between sets.

That being said every one should incorporate this into their exercise plan. Obviously a disclaimer is needed here, if you have heart or lung problems, or any health issues consult your physician first and make sure they approve it.

James Bolduc

MrPowerFitness

PowerFitnessSecrets.com

Another aspect to diet is quality of carbohydrates. Technically there are two types, simple and complex. Some definitions have fruits as a simple carbohydrate and vegetables are the complex. Another version is that all refined and processed carbohydrate sources are simple and both fruits and vegetables are the complex carbs.

While it tends to be a blend of the two. Simple carbohydrates are both fruit and the processed variety. Complex carbohydrates are found in the vegetable groups and refined processed foods as well. You have refined whole wheats and wheats in general, plus other processed grains such as those found in breads and pasta’s.

The best rule of thumb is to consume natural complex and simple carbs. For the simple carbs sources like apples, blackberries, blueberries, grapefruit, oranges, peaches and strawberries are all low in simple sugars as well.

For your complex carbs try broccoli, spinach, cabbage, cauliflower, onions, tomatoes(technically a fruit) and sweet potato to name a few. Natural complex carbs provide the essential vitamins and minerals needed for energy production. Simple, refined carbs found in many processed, convenient foods tend to be devoid of these natural nutrients. Who wants the additives any ways.

When choosing your veggies and fruits, as mentioned previously, opt to go organic if at all possible. This way you get a higher quality nutritional source. Also choosing natural, aids in your goal to lose weight. These sources tend to be utilized more efficiently by the body.
All carbohydrates are broken down in the body to become glucose to  produce the energy molecule ATP (adenosinetriphosphate). Complex carbs tend to be processed slower than simple carbs and this is why you use it to load up on to store energy for your workouts. Since the simple carbs break down faster they can be beneficial in getting a quick energy source just before a workout.

However you need to be careful for those of you that may be diabetic as this can be dangerous to your glucose levels first thing in the morning. It’s recommended to eat a small bit of complex carbs in those situations.

It is recommended that one eats at least five helpings a day of veggies and two to three of fruits. I like to start my day with either half a grapefruit or whole banana and a small portion of some protein source.

Then into my workout drinking plenty of water. Post workout I drink a quality protein drink that has some carbs as well. Here a good choice also would be to eat half a sweet potato, as you know you want to carbo-load the muscles. That’s two to three meals down, lunch would be something like grilled chicken and mixed veggies.

While I’m thinking of it you should also try to eat as many veggies that are a spectrum of colors. Such as red bell pepper, yellow squash, purple eggplant and green leafy veggies etc. etc. Reason being that they all have a different variety of essential nutrients we all need.
Back to meal or snack four, a piece of fruit or two. Dinner could be a nice fresh piece of fish with broccoli and sweet potato. The last snack and also as a bed time snack a protein drink.

Good night all.

James Bolduc

MrPowerFitness
PowerFitnessSecrets.com

You’ve probably heard of High Intensity Training.

Usually it’s, pardon the language “Balls to the Wall” with your effort level on every set. Usually it’s a set or two of each exercise for one particular body part. Can be a low as one set. Starting with a heavy enough weight do up to but no more than eight reps with strict form. Slow controlled movement without bouncing the weight or cheating any. At full contraction pause a full second then “squeeze” the contracted muscle. Finish that rep by lowering weight back to start position over a 4 to 5 second period. Without rest continue to rest of the reps to momentary muscle fatigue. That’s a set.

But what we are going to do is a high intensity circuit. This will be five to six different exercises with little to no rest between sets. Moderate weight with reps in the ten to twelve range. Can also be done for determined time frame like twenty seconds of continuous set then twenty seconds of each additional exercise.

As mentioned we will choose five different exercise, preferably as many full body as possible. Do one set of each exercise, one after the other. If at all possible go from one set to the next without rest. After the last set rest for one minute, no more than a minute and a half. Then do the circuit over for a total of five sets.

This ought to get your juices flowing. It will definitely speed up your metabolism and burn that fat like crazy.

Here’s our Circuit:

1. Pull-Ups to fatigue
2. Front Squats - 12 reps or for 20 sec.
3. Thrusters -12 reps or for 20 sec.
4. Dumbbell Lunges Alternating in Place - 12 reps or for 20 sec.
5. Renegade Rows - 12 reps or for 20 sec.

Rest for a minute to a minute and a half, do four more circuits. Your done for the day and I bet you have to crawl to the locker room. A word of advice if this all new and or it’s your first time working out period or in awhile, go light on the poundage. Start with just the empty barbell and ten pound dumbbells.

Here’s video examples of the newer exercises to you:

THRUSTERS

RENEGADE ROWS

FRONT SQUATS

For Pull-Ups and Lunges go to this previous post for video example: “Your Core Exercises”.

Hit the Circuit!

James Bolduc

MrPowerFitness

PowerFitnessSecrets.com

There are many opinions on how to work up to your first pull up. If your out of shape, haven’t worked out in ages, plain over weight or a complete newbie to exercise let me help.

First off for the most part your ability to perform pull-ups is pretty much proportional to your body-fat to muscle ratio. Hence the more you weigh the harder it is to do one. That is taking into consideration that you have average muscle tone.

Lets say that your weight challenged. Lets say by twenty pounds. We are also going to say it has been a while since you set foot in a gym.

One method and probably the best is the old stick with it method. This is every time you are working your back muscles and are going to do pull-ups you have to try as hard as you can to do as many complete reps as possible. Recommended, break your routine up into sets and reps as you would any other exercise.

Start with one complete rep, all the way up, all the way down. If you can only do one rep thats fine if you can do more do as many as you can for your first set. Now you will do five more sets for a total of six sets times as many reps as you can for each set. So if you could do only one rep each set then thats a total of six reps. Rest any where from thirty seconds to a minute between sets.

Now you can do this for a couple of weeks then add either after the first two weeks or from the get go static reps. So what your going to do after each set before you drop down from the bar is to pull up to your sticking point and hold that position for as long as you can, until failure, then rest for the next set.

My third technique is actually away from the pull-up bar. You can do it after you have done your pull-ups or on a off day. Go to the lat pull down cable machine, many gyms have them as part of a cable combo set. Make sure it’s the seated one and sit. adjust the weights to approximately one third to half your body weight, here you will have to gauge for yourself.

Grab the lat bar about shoulder length as you would for a pull-up. Pull the bar down along the front of your torso mimicking a pull-up motion, stop when the bar reaches your lap. Then back up for one full rep. Do five more sets with incremental weight adjustments until you reach the point where you can not bring the bar below your chest. Of course your reps will decrease proportionately to the increase in poundage.

So that’s ten reps the first three sets then eight, six and four. Add one last max rep with the most weight you can handle to the point mentioned before(just below the chest). When you can do say twenty pounds more than your body weight at the time for ten reps, I’ll bet you will have no problem ripping off pull-ups.

All along while your working on this improvement if you lose weight at the same time those reps will get easier and easier.

This should take you a long way in dominating the pull-up bar.

James Bolduc

MrPowerFitness

PowerFitnessSecrets.com

With all the supplements, diet restrictions and exercises we tend to overlook the quality of our diet. In quality I mean not just the type of proteins, carbohydrates and fats, but the quality in wholeness and pureness of the food.

For instance any vegetable you buy in the traditional supermarket like … err, I won’t mention names, are mass produced, and over farmed. Which means less nutrients in the soil and even less nutrition in the vegetable or fruit. But it’s still better to eat an apple before a workout than to grab a snickers bar. Oops I did anyways.

The same goes with animal foods. The supply chain here is even longer. Since the land is over produced, the grains fed to the animals is lacking in nutrients thus the nutritional quality of the meat is less than what it use to be.

Now with fish you have a different angle. Most fish caught out at sea and away from the reefs tend to be every bit as quality nutrition as it always was. Provided it’s fresh, within a few days from being caught and/or hasn’t gone bad for whatever. If it smells like the ocean it’s good to consume. If it smells like the proverbial “fishy” smell it is past it’s prime.

The one caveat with fish is farmed fish. In which they are fed inferior feed to keep cost down, which puts this type of meat in the same category as the rest of the farmed animal products.

The best way to go even though it will hit your wallet to almost the cost of twice as much is Organic.

In most cases buying organic produce will guarantee complete quality nutrition and flavor. The same holds true for the animal products. If you buy beef opt out to go organic and make sure it is grass fed. Most other meat products follow the same rule, like free range chicken. Beware free range chicken doesn’t mean that it is organic, nor their eggs.

With fish you have only one choice for high quality, fresh off the boat from a deep sea fishing expedition. Now the seas don’t have to be in the middle of the ocean. A mile or two off shore is fine. I n many coastal areas dolphin, swordfish, tuna and other tasty varieties can be found. Salmon, make sure its wild not farmed and preferably pacific coast or Alaskan.

I almost forgot seafood and shell fish. But you get the picture on the fresh catch theme. In some cases try to stay updated as to any environmental conditions that may pollute certain areas like lakes and rivers.

Now you will not only enjoy your food more, but you will also be the healthier for it.

James Bolduc

MrPowerFitness

PowerFitnessSecrets.com

If I had to recommend supplements for exercising, whether for muscle building or weight loss, I have a starter kit so to speak that I would list. Let me say right now that for the majority of people getting started a good nutrition plan and exercise plan are more than enough to reach most levels of fitness.

But for those that are slightly more advanced(not bodybuilders) and those that want an accelerated path these products can help. I always follow the motto if it’s good enough for the “pro” it’s good enough for me. I stop at the point of steroids though.

Most everything I would suggest centers around the workout itself. At least three products alone, each for each of the phases of your workout. That being said I in no way am endorsing these products for monetary gain.

I feel that they are quality products that are produced through quality methods and geared around the pro fitness athletes. There may be other products that perform as well or almost as well, but it is extremely difficult to personally test every brand. Due to time constraints, at least a month or two for each product and cost. My choices for now are:

• For pre-workout Gaspari Nutrition’s SuperPump250
• For during the workout session Gaspari Nutrition’s SizeOn
• Post work out & meal replacement, Gaspari Nutrition’s MyoFusion.
• PrimaForce’s Max CLA for the antioxident, fat burning and lean muscle mass increase.

Pretty much this is a great start up kit for those into fitness and want to create that “hot bod” ripped look.

There are a lot of products in these categories and most of them are good. But there are those that are a waste of money because they are nothing but filler. One has to do the research, not just on the product but the company too. That’s why I chose Gaspari Nutrition, there products are designed around bodybuilders and pro athletes who need that best quality for the best productivity.

Of course if I come across equal or better I’ll be the first to post.

James Bolduc

MrPowerFitness

PowerFitnessSecrets.com