I want to provide everyone with a summary of my 10 fitness principles. If you follow these health and fitness concepts you’ll be on your way to living a more active healthy lifestyle. When reading these principles, it is more important to understand the overall philosophy of them as opposed to following them to the letter. You can read the full article about each principle by clicking the highlighted links.

Ten Fitness Principles

1-    Don’t control your weight with exercise

Trying to control your weight with a lot of exercise is a losing battle. Eventually you will wind up burned out, unhealthy and have a number of over use injuries. You have to learn how to control your weight with your diet.

2-    Avoid processed foods

I can confidently say that if you eat heavily processed foods on a regular basis you will be shortening your life. Research has found that being over weight is responsible for 216,000 premature deaths each year and the over consumption of processed foods are a major contributor to the obesity epidemic in the US.

3-    Live an active lifestyle

If I had to choose between working out in the gym for an hour a day and them sitting behind a desk as opposed to living an active lifestyle by moving around all day long, I would pick an active lifestyle hands down for good health.

4-    Hard work should be short in duration

I’ve been telling my personal training clients for years that “when you workout hard it should be short and when you workout long it should be easy”. Yet this is a common sense concept that most fitness enthusiasts can’t accept. One of the biggest mistakes you can make with your exercise program is to have the mind set that more or harder is always better.

5-    Eat lots of vegetables with some protein and fat

The best way to eat everyday is to consume lots of vegetables, a couple of fruits, some animal protein, an egg or two, some nuts and seeds, and plenty of healthy fat. I know there are so many schools of thought when it comes to the ideal diet. The last 20 years could not be any more confusing for the average person looking to lose some weight and eat healthy. After studying nutrition in school, then reading just about every best selling diet book that was published and finally using my experience working with a few hundred personal training clients over the years, I have concluded that eating whole natural foods are the way to go.

6-    Do easy aerobics on a regular basis

Besides doing your short hard strength and interval work-outs you need to do easy longer aerobic work-outs on a regular basis. This principle can blend into living an active lifestyle (Principle #3) but an active lifestyle can be stop and go, while easy aerobics should be continuous.

7-    Get adequate sleep

We all know how important it is to get adequate sleep but so few of us do get enough. Your body can’t function at an optimal level if you are always sleep deprived because many important reactions happen to our bodies when you are asleep. Vital hormones are released when you are asleep that help your brain function, immune system and can even help you to lose weight. Check out this article I wrote called Lack of Sleep Leads to Weight Gain.

8-    Lift weights

We all need some form of weight lifting for good health. It can be your own body weight, free weights or any type of resistance that makes you push, pull and just work hard. I’m not that concerned what type of resistance you choose as long as you workout relatively hard and keep it short in duration.

9-    Cut down on sodium

You have to cut down on sodium to have a healthy diet. Most people in America eat an average of 3,400 mg of sodium a day while the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) is less than 2,400 mg which is just about a teaspoon of table salt. I recommend you limit your sodium to no more than 1,500 mg per day and even less, if you have high blood pressure. I try to eat less than 1,000 mg of sodium per day.

10- Have outdoor play time

The older we get the less time we seem to spend outside. When we were kids all we wanted to do was go outside and have some fun. We would play hopscotch or get a ball game going with some of our friends or just run around. I think we all miss that now. One of the unhealthiest things you can do as an adult is spend all day inside.

Give these principles a try. They don’t involve spending 6 or 7 days in the gym overtraining. They’re just based on a lifestyle philosophy that involves being active, eating right and training smart. You can have that great body and feel years younger if you follow these principles.

If you haven’t already, make sure you get my free “Forever 27″ workout and diet plan. In this report, I explain to you the strategies I teach my clients to have a 20-something body, regardless of their age.

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Best-Mike

Tight hip flexors can cause a number of problems with your body. Two of the biggest problems is back pain and hip pain.  When the three primary hip flexors known as Psoas Major, Illacus and Rectus Femoris are tight they can tilt your pelvis into a position that extends the spine. This may cause back pain. Most people will try to fix the problem with stretching; however, in my opinion stretching will not permanently help and may even lead to further dysfunction.

When a personal training client comes to me with tight hip flexors the first thing we do is try to figure out why the hip flexors are  tight. When you have a tight muscle it’s generally tight for a reason; therefore, just doing stretching is not going to solve the problem. It will eventually tighten up again as soon as you ease up on your stretching program. Furthermore, stretching a tight muscle might open up a range of motion that your body is not ready for and can lead to a more serious injury. What you really want is flexibility (or mobility) with stability.

How do you get Mobility and Stability for the Hip Joint?

Whenever I want to increase the flexibility of a muscle or joint I take a three-prong approach.  The first thing I do (with my personal training clients) is look at the body as a whole through a range of motion and muscle testing evaluations. Sometimes when you have a tight hip flexor the problem is really coming from a different part of the body. You may have an issue with your ankle or knee that’s making the hip compensate and tighten up. Let’s assume for purposes of this article that the problem is isolated and in the hip. Now if the problem is isolated to the hip there are two main things I would do. The first thing is starting them on a joint mobility program. Secondly, I would go after strengthening the antagonistic muscle group.

I like joint mobility movement because when you move through comfortable ranges of motion without trying to stretch your muscles you release synovial fluid within the joint, which lubricates, protects and heals the joint without forcing yourself into positions of instability. Here is a link to an article I wrote about joint mobility movement so you can better understand it. In addition, here is a video I made for one of my clients who was having some hip issues.

When it comes to permanently increasing the flexibility of your hip flexors (Psoas Major, Illacus and Rectus Femoris) the key to doing this is strengthening the opposing muscle groups. Check out this post I did called Muscle Tightness Comes from Muscle Weakness. Many times when a muscle is tight, it is because the opposing muscles are actually weak. For example, if you have tight hip flexors your body will not let you do the opposite motion completely. You will be limited in hip extension.

Therefore, what you have to do is strengthen your hip extensors. In this case, it would be primarily your Gluteus Maximus and hamstrings. What’s happening is that your body is sensing weakness and instability whenever you try to extend your hip so to protect itself it tightens up the hip flexors.

Good exercises to strengthen the glutes and hamstrings are bridges, hip thrusts and kickbacks. These movements will increase the flexibility of the hip flexors. Here is a video of Bret Contreras performing and explaining the hip thrust. You should start with your body weight.

Now to review: the first thing you have to do is look at your body as a whole if you determine that the problem is isolated to the hip. Thereafter, start a joint mobility program and then strengthen your hip extensors. If you do feel like you’re in some type of compensation pattern and that’s whats making your hips tighten up, I recommend you see a professional to help you solve the problem.

I hope this article helps your hip flexor pain.  I know how hard it can be when your body can’t do the things you want it to.

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Best – Mike Cola

I started my fitness blog Fitness Contrarian about 2.5 years ago. I really enjoy doing research and seem to spend half my time reading other people’s health and fitness blogs. When I first started blogging I had no idea how many websites were out there in the fitness niche.  However, over time I seem to keep going back to just a handful of great sites so I wanted to put together my list of the best fitness blogs for 2011.

Best Fitness Blogs 2011

Fitness Black Book: Rusty Moore’s site is one of my favorites when it comes to building a lean healthy body. His workout and diet approach is all based on getting the “Hollywood body” as opposed to the bulky overly muscular look. Whenever I want a fresh point of view about dropping some body fat or building lean muscle I find myself reading Rusty’s blog.

Marks Daily Apple: Mark Sisson’s site is all about living primal in a modern world. One great thing about Mark’s site is he posts everyday so there is a never-ending stream of new content. He believes in and writes about a diet and lifestyle similar to our primal ancestors. He does a lot of good research and really goes in depth about nutrition and how to stay healthy in the toxic world we live in. Mark also manufactures what I consider to be the best multivitamin and protein powder on the market today.

Zen Habits: Leo Babauta’s site is one of the most popular blogs on the Internet with over 230,000 subscribers. Leo writes about living a simple life while avoiding the chaos that is all around us. He doesn’t just write about health and fitness, he covers a variety of topics that can help you live a happier stress-free life. What I like about his blog is that most of the articles can be read in less than 5 minutes. Leo continually gives you new perspectives on how to go about your day in a positive light.

There’s also another blog site similar to Zen Habits, which I should mention called Zen to Fitness. Chris from Zen to Fitness takes a similar writing approach to Leo’s blog site while sticking more to just the topics of health and fitness. I really enjoy reading Chris’s site as well.

Lean Gains: Martin Berkhan is an expert when it comes to intermittent fasting and maintaining low body fat levels all year round. His site Lean Gains gives very scientific and research based information on how to get very lean while building muscle. I have found that many other bloggers including myself follow a lot of Martin’s advice. His site is more for the serious fitness enthusiast or bodybuilder who is interested in the science behind getting lean.

Rob Wolf: Rob is the New York Times best-selling author of the Paleo Solution- The Original Human Diet. I really enjoyed reading Rob’s book Paleo Solution. Rob’s site overlaps Marks Daily Apple a little when it come to nutrition but he’s a former research biochemist, which helps him explain his point of view with solid research. As you can tell, I’m definitely a believer in the Paleo diet. My diet philosophy is somewhat based on these principles.

Robertson Training Systems: Mike Robertson is a premier sports training coach. His site is great for learning how to do movement correctly like deadlifts, squats and an endless number of movements. He explains things very effectively through videos. If you need some advice on exercise technique, check out his site.

JCD Fitness:  JC gives great advice for the 20 and 30 something crowd who want to build muscle and get lean safely and efficiently. I like JC’s writing style; he backs everything he says up with research and one can tell that he takes his training very seriously. He references Alan Aragon’s blog all the time which is also a great blog when it comes to nutrition and training. Alan has a paid subscription called Alan Aragon’s Research Reviews. I think it’s about $10 a month but well worth the money if you like to analyze the latest research.

I can keep going on and on, but I don’t want to overwhelm you with too many fitness blogs to check out. Let me know which one of these are your favorite or tell me your list of the top health and fitness blogs by leaving a comment.

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Best-Mike Cola

I wanted to do a fun post about the weights and heights of some well known celebrities because so many of my personal training clients aspire to have a body like Megan Fox or Ryan Reynolds.

What I did not realize is that it is hard to get accurate information about celebrities weight and height. It took a lot of time researching through the Internet and several magazines to come up with some real numbers. Not to mention these actors are always gaining and losing weight for different roles so I tried to find out what they normally weigh. I picked popular celebrities that are well known for having a great body. In addition, I thought it would be fun to have a little bio (taken from Wikipedia) of each actor as well. Check out the list below.

Megan Fox – Height: 5’6″ Weight 114lbs.

Megan Denise Fox (born May 16, 1986) is an American actress and model. She began her acting career in 2001 with several minor television and film roles, and played a regular role on Hope & Faith. In 2004, she launched her film career with a role in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. In 2007, she was cast as Mikaela Banes, the love interest of Shia LaBeouf’s character, in the blockbuster film Transformers, which became her breakout role. Fox reprised her role in the 2009 sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Later in 2009, she starred as the titular lead character in the film Jennifer’s Body.

Ryan Reynolds - Height: 6’2″ Weight 200lbs

Ryan Rodney Reynolds (born October 23, 1976)[1] is a Canadian film and television actor. Reynolds first became known on television playing the role of Michael Bergen on ABC’s Two Guys and a Girl (1998–2001). He has since appeared in films such as National Lampoon’s Van Wilder, Just Friends, Definitely, Maybe, The Proposal, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and Green Lantern.

Blake Lively – Height 5’10″ Weight 135lbs.

Blake Christina Lively (born August 25, 1987) is an American actress and model who stars as Serena van der Woodsen in the television teen drama series Gossip Girl. She has also starred in movies, including Accepted, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, The Town and Green Lantern.

Henry Cavill  - Height 6’1″ Weight 176lbs.

Henry William Dalgliesh Cavill (born 5 May 1983) is a British actor. He has appeared in the films The Count of Monte Cristo and Stardust, and played the role of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, on the Showtime series The Tudors, from 2007 until 2010. He has been cast as Superman in the 2013 film Man of Steel.

Jennifer Aniston – Height 5’6″ Weight 118lbs.

Jennifer Joanna Aniston (born February 11, 1969)[3] is an American actress, film director, and producer. Aniston gained worldwide recognition in the 1990′s for portraying Rachel Green on the television sitcom Friends, a role which earned her an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Chris Hemsworth - Height 6’3″ Weight 210lbs.

Chris Hemsworth (born 11 August 1983) is an Australian actor most notable for portraying Thor in the Marvel Studios film Thor. Hemsworth is set to reprise his role as Thor in the upcoming films The Avengers in 2012 and Thor 2 in 2013. He also starred as Kim Hyde in the Australian soap opera Home and Away. He is the older brother of Liam and the younger brother of Luke Hemsworth.

Jennifer Lopez – Height 5’6″ Weight 120lbs.

Jennifer Lynn Lopez (born July 24, 1969) is a Puerto Rican-American actress, singer, record producer, dancer, television personality, and fashion designer. Lopez began her career as a dancer on the television comedy program In Living Color. Subsequently venturing into acting, she gained recognition in the 1995 action-thriller Money Train. Her first leading role was in the biographical film Selena (1997), in which she earned an ALMA Award for Outstanding Actress. She earned her second ALMA Award for her performance in Out of Sight (1998). She has since starred in various films, including The Wedding Planner (2001), Maid in Manhattan (2002), Shall We Dance? (2004), Monster-in-Law (2005), and The Back-up Plan (2010).

Jason Momoa – Height 6’4″ Weight 215lbs.

Jason Momoa (born August 1, 1979) is an American actor and model.
He is known for his role as Ronon Dex (2005–2009) on military science fiction television series Stargate: Atlantis (2004–2009). Most recently, he became recognized for his role as the title character in the sword and sorcery film Conan the Barbarian (2011).[3] Before the film, Momoa appeared as Khal Drogo in the HBO medieval fantasy television series Game of Thrones (2011).

Cameron Diaz – Height 5’9″ Weight 120lbs.

Cameron Michelle Diaz (born August 30, 1972) is an American actress and former model. She became famous during the 1990s with roles in the movies The Mask, My Best Friend’s Wedding, and There’s Something About Mary. Other high-profile credits include the two Charlie’s Angels films, voicing the character Princess Fiona for the Shrek series and Bad Teacher. Diaz received Golden Globe award nominations for her performances in the movies There’s Something About Mary, Being John Malkovich, Vanilla Sky, and Gangs of New York.

Dwayne Johnson – Height 6’4.5″ Weight 250lbs

Dwayne Douglas Johnson[7] (born May 2, 1972),[5] also known by his ring name The Rock, is an American actor and professional wrestler who is signed to the WWE, appearing on the Raw brand.[8][9] He is often credited as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.[3]

I hope you had some fun looking over the list and comparing yourself to some of the best bodies in Hollywood. If you are looking for a great muscle-building program that will not bulk you up but instead give you that lean muscular movie star look, I recommend that you check out Visual Impact for men or Visual Impact for women.

I have studied and used these programs on my personal training clients and myself with great results.

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Best – Mike

Muscle hypertrophy (muscle cell enlargement) is an area of great debate in the fitness industry. Everyone has their opinion on how to overload the muscular system to produce growth and there are new studies coming out every week proving one method is better then another. But how do you resistance train if your goal is to get stronger and leaner while avoiding that overly developed bodybuilding look? Most of my personal training clients want more of that ripped athletic look but also want to be as strong as possible.

There are two basic ways a muscle cell gets bigger. One is called sarcoplasmic hypertrophy and the other is called myofibrillar hypertrophy. Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is when there is an increase of fluid and noncontractile connective tissue within the muscle while myofibrillar hypertrophy is an increase in the size of the contractile muscle fiber (actine and myosin).

Traditional body builders do higher volume resistance training while lifting moderately heavy weights for 10 to 12 reps. It is not uncommon for a body builder to spend 30 to 40 minutes just training their chest while a power lifter will lift very heavy weights for only 1,2 or 3 reps.

A typical body builder is more muscular then a power lifter but not as strong; therefore, the higher rep and higher volume of training will contribute more to sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. Now keep in mind that there is always some carry over. Whenever you resistance train you will get both sarcoplasmic hypertrophy and myofibrillar hypertrophy.

The secret to getting strong and lean is using the right combination of sarcoplasmic hypertrophy and myofibrillar hypertrophy. A good friend of mine Rusty Moore did a great video explaining the whole concept below.

Rusty is known for his fitness blog called Fitness Black Book which gets over 300,000 visitors per month.  The whole site is devoted to a training approach that will teach you how to get the lean “Hollywood Look”.

Let me know what you think about the video and if you checked out Rusty’s site.

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Best – Mike Cola

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