Fitness & Wellness

This Is Your Year To Shine

This Is Your Year To Shine

If you’re already a member of Iron Fit in San Antonio, Texas, you probably already have your goals set and are ready to start your program to accomplish them. For those who are considering a fitness program, this could be your year to shine. It takes determination, persistence, hard work and keeping your eye on the prize, but it can be done. In fact, we actually have a 28 day challenge to help you get a jump start on your goals.

It all starts with knowing where you are right now.

One of the biggest benefits of working with a personal trainer is getting the help of assessing your present fitness level. The journey to fitness is like any other trip you take. In order to create a map to get you to your destination, you have to know where you’re starting. Using that information, the trainer then designs a program that’s tough, but still within your capabilities.

Creating weekly goals is also important if you want to shine.

Breaking down a big goal to smaller ones help you stay on track better. It’s far easier to check your progress each week and make adjustments along the way. What are the types of things you monitor with these goals? They can include your diet, sleeping habits, hydration and workout program. We find that circuit training gets results fast, so when you workout at Iron Fit, you may even exceed your goals.

Working out with others, a workout buddy or personal trainer helps you stay on track.

Whether you use the services of a personal trainer, have a workout buddy or simply workout in a group, you’ll do better than if you workout alone. Both a personal trainer and a workout buddy keep you accountable, encouraging you to workout when you might not feel like it. That encouragement isn’t verbal, but just knowing you’re meeting with someone. Working out with a buddy, in a group or with a trainer can push you to workout harder and longer, rather than quitting early.

  • In order to shine and achieve, you have to create a goal that’s truly yours and something you really want to achieve. If you’re starting a program because a friend or partner said you should, you won’t be as invested in success.
  • Workout smart and get the quickest results. Circuit training can help you do that. Results are super motivating and give you a chance to shine early on, to help you reach your ultimate goal later.
  • You can achieve anything you set your mind to do. It’s all about believing in yourself and providing that mental can-do attitude.
  • Enjoying your workout helps keep you on track. At Iron Fit, we have a program that’s varied that’s challenging and fun. If you’ve never tried kettlebells before, it’s an experience most people really enjoy.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio


Wake Up - Kick Butt - Repeat

Wake Up – Kick Butt – Repeat

There are no mysteries about getting fit. It’s just a matter of doing it. You simply wake up, kick A@#, repeat. That’s the real secret behind fitness, but there are also many other things that can help you reach your goals faster. Consider combining a healthy diet with your workout. Not only will you lose weight faster, you’ll feel better and get more from the workout and every waking moment. A healthy diet devoid of processed food can put pep in your step so you have the energy to maximize your workout.

Add strength training to your workout.

Strength training not only provides a great deal of benefits for your health, it also helps melt fat away faster. While endurance training burns huge amounts of calories, too, it also burns lean muscle mass. When you do strength training it burns calories while also building muscle mass. The more muscle tissue you have, the easier it is to shed weight. That’s because muscle tissue burns more calories than fat tissue does. Strength training also stimulates after burn, which raises the number of calories you burn for up to 48 hours.

Circuit training gets you to your goal quicker.

You can target multiple muscle groups at once with circuit training. Each routine is a mix of exercises to help you reach your goal quicker. Circuit training is a time saver. As you swiftly move from one exercise to another, you’ll boost your cardio health and burn calories, which helps you reach your weight loss goal quicker.

Vary your workout.

One of the reasons Iron Fit offers so many different types of exercise options is that each one has something to offer. It’s also to help motivate clients. While you might not love calisthenics, you might love doing kettlebells or kicking and punching your way to fitness. It’s one reason Iron Fit has so many different options available and introduce them to each client. You might not think you’ll love a specific method of exercise, but once you try it, end up loving it. Not only does varying your workout avoid boredom and plateauing, it ensures every muscle is worked on every plane.

  • Don’t make the gym the only place to get exercise. Whenever you get the chance to walk a little further, do it. Park further from the grocery door. Take breaks from sitting and move around every 50 minutes.
  • Vary your speed. Whether you’re walking, working out or cleaning house, varying your speed from top speed to recovery speed every few minutes acts like a high intensity interval training session.
  • Get adequate sleep. You can’t do your best if you’re not getting enough sleep. Lack of sleep can cause you to eat more by disrupting the balance of leptin and ghrelin hormones.
  • Use a workout that’s created specifically for your fitness level and needs. We create it for you at Iron Fit.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio


Make Excuses Or Make It Happen

Make Excuses Or Make It Happen

If you want to achieve anything in life, you simply do it. It can start by creating a goal, followed by a plan of action. Once that’s done, you have to stick to that plan. In other words, you either make excuses or make it happen. The problem with weight loss and fitness goals is that they don’t happen overnight. They take time to achieve. Enthusiasm wanes as time goes on, so each day without results makes it harder to stay the course.

You need to find ways to make it easier to stick to your plan.

There are many different tricks to help you keep focused on your goal. You can put sticky notes with messages to yourself around the house. You can visualize yourself achieving your goal. If you feel like skipping your workout, weigh the benefit of skipping it to the negative effects of skipping. In most cases, people decide that the positives of exercise far outweighs the negatives of not exercising. Some people simply get dressed for working out, without making that decision to go. Once they’re dressed, it’s easier to convince yourself to stick with the program.

Do you really have a slow metabolism that you can’t do anything about?

While you might have a slow metabolism, there’s no reason you can’t boost it. Exercise helps do that. When you do strength training, it can increase your metabolism for up to 48 hours after you finish. Strength training also builds muscle tissue. Muscle tissue requires more calories to maintain than fat tissue does, so the more you have, the more calories you burn 24/7. That means you’ve boosted your metabolism. Rather than sitting and feeling sorry for yourself, do something about it. Kick start your metabolism with exercise.

You could say you’re too busy to workout or boost your energy by working out get things done faster.

There’s no doubt about it, these are busy times for everyone. Having enough time to workout is often one of the excuses people give as reasons they can’t get into shape. What they don’t realize is that the more they workout, the more energy they have and the quicker they get things done. In fact, studies show that people who exercise regularly improve their cognitive functions, so their concentration and focus improve, making mental work go quicker, too.

  • You can’t use the fact that you’re too tired to workout as an excuse, since exercise boosts your energy and chases away that tired feeling. You actually need to workout if you’re constantly tired.
  • At Iron Fit, we help you stay more focused on your fitness goal by providing quicker results. There’s nothing more motivating than seeing results.
  • Do you hate traditional exercise, so you dread every trip to your gym? You’ll probably love some of the tools we use to help you get into shape. You can also vary your workout to include active things you love to do.
  • It’s time to get started and you can do it today. Try our free 3-day pass to get a feel of how different our Iron Fit program is. You’ll like what you find and how you feel.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio


Low Carb Dieting 101

Low Carb Dieting 101

Trying to find the best diet to help you lose weight can be confusing. We don’t recommend dieting and believe the best option is healthy eating. However, it’s interesting to note that eating healthy can be low carb dieting. Low carb diets don’t contain processed foods or sugary products, which is part of a program of healthy eating. The information provided on a low carb diet shows the types of foods to eat on this diet and includes the positives and negatives.

Identifying foods to avoid on a low carb diet is easier than noting the ones to eat.

You normally associate dieting with a limited list of foods, but just like eating healthy, low carb diets provide lots of options. As noted before, sugar products and highly processed foods aren’t allowed on this type of diet, neither are soft drinks, artificial sweeteners, most vegetable oils and ice cream. That means it eliminates most of the low fat and diet food you find on the market. These are processed foods and often contain sugar to enhance the flavor that was lost when fat was removed. One thing that healthy eating includes that isn’t part of a low carb diet or is limited is pasta and bread.

You’ll find a lot of food that’s high in protein and/or may have fat.

How you get your calories changes when you go with a diet that’s lower in carbohydrates. Instead of getting most of your energy from carbohydrates, you get it from foods higher in fat and protein. When you eat carbohydrates, like traditional diets, your body changes those carbohydrates’ glucose to glycogen and then stores the glycogen in the liver. When the liver is at maximum storage capacity, the body converts it to fat. Cutting back on carbohydrates makes your body get fuel elsewhere and that’s body fat.

There are health benefits that come with low carbohydrate diets.

Low carbohydrate diets lower the insulin levels and reduces the risk for insulin resistance, which is a precursor to Type 2 diabetes. This type of diet also helps lower the LDL levels, the bad cholesterol, and increase the HDL or good cholesterol levels. It stabilizes blood sugar levels and triglyceride levels. They type of food consumed in a low carb diet have many health benefits. For instance, grass fed beef and butter from grass fed cows is high in Omega fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acid—CLA—that makes it heart healthy.

  • You can tip your toe into a low carb diet by first giving up sugary products, processed food, bread and pasta. While it’s a healthy change, if you’re going to adopt a complete low carb diet, talk to your health care professional first.
  • While vegetables and fruit contain carbs, you can have them on low carb diets. Vegetables do contain carbohydrates, the carbs are more complex, so they don’t spike sugar levels and take longer to get into your bloodstream.
  • You do have to be more careful with the type of fruit you eat on a low carb diet, making choices that are low in sugar. You also need to avoid starchy vegetables.
  • There are temporary side effects of low carb diets that include fatigue, muscle cramps, rash, digestive upsets, bad breath, weakness and headache. Extremely restricted carbs for long periods can create a host of nutritional and long term problems.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio


Functional Fitness - Getting Your Body Ready For A Year Of Fun

Functional Fitness – Getting Your Body Ready For A Year Of Fun

I watch people put their heart and soul into their workout program here in San Antonio, Texas. Some come in because they have medical issues that exercise and a healthy diet can help. Some just want to shed a few pounds and look their best. While those are both great reasons for working out, almost everyone that comes to the gym eventually loves the fact they have more energy and can do far more than they could before they started. After a few months of working out, clients notice they have more balance, coordination, are stronger and have more endurance. That’s functional fitness. It improves your range of motion and helps prevent muscle and joint injuries in the process.

Functional fitness works your core muscles.

While looking great is important, enjoying every minute of life to its fullest is far more important. You can’t do that if you’re not healthy and fit. When you do core training, which boosts that fitness, you’ll be boosting your chances of avoiding those sudden injuries from doing something as simple as bending over to tie a shoe or picking up a child. Whether you’re 26 or 86, this type of training can help you prevent injuries, boost your endurance and for seniors, help you live on your own longer.

You may not realize that you’re doing functional fitness training.

We just call it exercise, but in reality, you’re working all muscles in the body when you workout with us. While our workouts help you build muscle tissue and burn fat, they also aid in making sure you do everyday tasks at home, work or play with less potential for injury. It builds core strength, helps relieve backaches, builds strength an stability. Consider this. When you do squats, you’re burning calories and sculpting your body, but you’re also building strength so that sitting down and getting up from a chair are easier tasks.

It’s all about living better and feeling good.

Make this year the year you get back to those things you enjoyed doing when you were in your teens and twenties or trying new things you were afraid you didn’t have the strength or endurance to do. While we don’t necessarily focus on a specific functional fitness program, we provide all the training that not only helps you reduce injury, improve core strength, improve flexibility and boost your endurance. In other words, at Iron Fit, we not only help you shed those extra pounds, we get you ready for getting the most enjoyment out of life.

  • We can help everyone, even if you’re completely out of shape or have physical limitations. However, you need to check with your health care professional to make sure you’re able to start a fitness program and let us know your limitations.
  • Just imagine how great you’ll feel and look. Weight loss and body sculpting will boost your confidence, but the energy, strength and flexibility will boost the fun.
  • Seniors benefit from our fitness regimen. It helps reduce the risk of falls, slows or stops the progress of osteoporosis and improves balance. You’ll have pep in your step.
  • Exercises that focus on functional fitness work several joints and muscles at once. Instead of focusing just on a thigh muscle, it’s works the entire leg and hip area.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio


Eat More Fat Burning Food

Eat More Fat Burning Food

If you’re ready to sign up for weekly deliveries of fat burning food, you wouldn’t be alone. Anyone that’s been eating healthy and wants to make weight loss faster would naturally be interested. These foods tend to burn a higher number of calories to digest than they actually contain. They also may help build muscle tissue—and that muscle tissue burns more calories than fat tissue does. They may also promote fat burning. For instance, raw almonds not only are a good snack that fill you up, they also build muscle tissue.

The thermogenic effect of food plays a big role.

What’s the thermogenic effect? It’s the amount of calories used to digest a food. For instance, food high in fiber require more calories to process as does brown rice. Whole grains and brown rice take more calories to process than they contain. However, remember whole grain products contain other ingredients, too. Brown rice, compared to white rice, even start out lower in calories. While lean protein, like chicken, still provide calories, it takes about a third of their calories to digest. There’s a reason that celery is always presented as a diet food. It has a high thermogenic effect.

Do you want to burn more fat? Try these foods.

Food that spikes your insulin level encourages the accumulation of fat around the middle. That’s why eating food that prevent that can be a real help to dieters. Salmon, walnuts, sardines, kale, brown rice and olive oil help keep insulin level. Foods high Omega-3 fatty acids help fat burning. Oily fish, flaxseed oil and both meat and milk products from grass fed cows are higher in Omega-3 fatty acid. A diet rich in blueberries helps reduce fat around your middle—belly fat. Oatmeal, lettuce and other high fiber foods help reduce belly fat, too.

Boost your metabolism and increase your weight loss with food.

People use the word metabolism often, but most people don’t understand exactly what it is. It’s the amount of energy it takes to keep your body functioning on a basic level. Even when you’re asleep, your body burns calories keeping various functions going. You burn calories just breathing! The higher your metabolism, the more calories you burn without additional effort. Foods that boost your metabolism include almonds, lean meat, eggs, beans, chia seeds and dark chocolate, just to name a few.

  • You know that spicy, hot feeling that hot peppers produce in your mouth? The capsaicin in it burns and does the same to fat. It heats the body, which requires calories to cool and breaks down fat in the process.
  • Many seeds help give your metabolism a boost. Try sprinkling hemp seed on your cereal in the morning for a quickie boost that burns a few extra calories.
  • Potassium is your friend when it comes to increasing your basal metabolism—calories burned while at rest, such as sitting. Bananas are a good source of potassium.
  • You can get extra help from switching drinks. For instance, that cup of coffee in the morning may contain caffeine to rev your metabolism, but green tea has both caffeine and catechin, a flavonoid that breaks down fat. Don’t add sugar.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio


How To Meal Plan Successfully

How To Meal Plan Successfully

Do you want to lose weight? Is paying less for food important? Can saving time be a help? You’ll get all those benefits when you meal plan. Planning your meals ahead, shopping and even preparing them ahead may take more time the first few weeks, but you’ll find it saves time, money and even eat better the longer you do it. You start by with the planning, which should take place Wednesday or Thursday night, so you can shop for your meals on Friday and cook over the weekend.

Start with the ads and seasonal fruits and vegetables.

You don’t have to do this step if saving money isn’t your thing, but for most people, it’s an added benefit of planning. Check the online ads to get an idea of what’s on sale and then create a menu that uses those items. If one recipe requires things that don’t keep long or freeze, such as lettuce, make sure you use it in another meal so you don’t have waste. Create the menu and the shopping list for the week.

Get all the ingredients for the week on Friday.

If you’re a stay at home parent, you don’t have to follow the scheduled days as closely. They’re primarily for the person who works outside the home. Cook your meals over the weekend, double the recipes so you have meals to freeze for future weeks. The more you continue meal planning, the more meals you’ll have in your freezer for the future. You can use those for busy weeks when you don’t have time for shopping or cooking.

Freeze ingredients you don’t use or make sure you use them for other recipes.

If you need a chicken breast for one meal, but it’s cheaper to buy a whole chicken than just the breast, buy a whole chicken and use the other parts in another meal. Some meals require fresh herbs but not nearly as much as the amount you have to purchase at one time. You can freeze those herbs in ice cube trays for future recipes. Save the bones from chicken to create a bone broth you can freeze for future meals.

  • Eating healthy includes healthy snacks. You can assign the kids the task of making healthy trail mix from dried fruit and nuts and packing them in individual serving size bags.
  • Clean and slice all vegetables as soon as you buy them. You can make a dip and snack on them throughout the week, but if you have any left over, make soup for the following week.
  • You’ll save money and get all the nutrients possible when you use in-season fresh fruits and vegetables. You’ll be surprised at all the unique ways to use them that promote healthy eating.
  • When you plan meals, you’ll be able to prepare your meals by just removing them from the freezer and reheating them. It’s even quicker than waiting in the drive through line and far healthier and tastier.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio


Strip The Scale Of Its Power

Strip The Scale Of Its Power

If you’re one of my clients in San Antonio, Texas, you know that we look at various factors, besides the number on the scale, to check your progress. There’s a reason for that. Sometimes, the scales lie. That’s right, the scales simply don’t give the whole picture and by doing that, lead you to believe you’re a failure. There are other ways to keep the report from the scales in perspective and truly judge whether you’re making progress.

If you’re working out regularly, you’re most likely building muscle tissue.

Sometimes, people make great progress exercising and eat healthy meals, but when weigh in time comes, find they lost less than they wanted, didn’t lose anything or occasionally, gained a pound. How could that happen? Well it’s easy, they’ve been working out and building muscle tissue, which weighs more per cubic inch than fat tissue does. Luckily, muscle tissue is more compact, so a pound of muscle tissue would fit in a much smaller container than a pound of fat tissue. You’ll be slimmer, even if he scales say you aren’t.

Taking measurements, besides weighing in, can give you a more accurate picture.

If you take measurements all over your body and find that while you may not have lost a pound, you still lost inches. You’re making progress! One of the most important measurements is around your middle. The fat around your middle tends to be visceral fat, which crowds internal organs, making it the most unhealthy fat to have. If that measurement is smaller, you’re not only successfully losing weight, you’re improving your overall health.

Judge your progress by how your clothes fit.

Do you have a pair of pants or shorts that are a smidge too tight? Those can be your guide to whether you’re progressing or not. Every month, take out that clothing item and see how it fits. If it’s loose, you’re a winner! There will come a point when the clothing is so loose it will fall off. That’s when you use another pair of pants or shorts. It’s hard to judge just how much smaller you are when the pants have been too big for months. Most people have to buy new clothing at that point and usually buy it a bit snug if they have more weight to lose.

  • Scales can lie for other reasons. Your body weight is constantly fluctuating. Water retention, bloating and other problems can make you heavier. One way to avoid worrying about the daily fluctuations is to weigh in each week at the same time, on the same day of the week.
  • You’ll really benefit from exercise in a second way, besides losing inches. Muscle tissue requires more calories for maintenance, so the more you have, the more calories you’ll burn, boosting your metabolism.
  • Don’t ignore the scales, especially if you know you haven’t been true to your plan. While they are just one way to measure progress, weighing is also important. Just don’t judge yourself with every minor fluctuation.
  • Check out our 28 day jumpstart at Iron Fit. You’ll get the results you want quickly and love the scales again, even if they sometimes lie.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio


Why Am I Hungry After My Work Out?

Why Am I Hungry After My Work Out?

Working out burns calories and uses glycogen reserve, so naturally you’d be hungry after you work out. It’s one reason that exercise can help you shed pounds, but won’t do as much good if you’re not eating a healthy diet. That’s why it’s important to fuel up before you workout, to ensure you’re not building a ravenous appetite.

Avoid the problem of a ravenous appetite by snacking before a workout.

If you want to avoid that feeding frenzy that comes after you workout, eat before you start. You need at least 30 minutes between the time you eat and ideally, an hour. If you only have 30 minutes, eat light. Make it an easily digested carb, like a banana, and some protein, such as peanut butter. If you have longer, opt for more fuel like an egg and fruit or oatmeal with seeds, fruit and nuts added.

If you had a snack before you worked out and are still hungry, maybe you need to hydrate.

Sometimes, when you’re hungry, you’re really thirsty. Dehydration can occur during a workout if you didn’t drink water before you started or didn’t sip on it while you were working out. Thirst can trick the brain into thinking it’s hungry, so you eat, which gives you fluid from the food you eat, but often not enough to fill the gap. That means you continue to feel hungry. Always drink water before a workout, sip during that workout and then finish off your workout with a 12-ounce bottle of water. If the problem is hydration, you’ll notice your appetite disappearing.

The type of food you eat makes a difference in your level of hunger.

Carbohydrates digest more quickly than protein does, so you need a combination of both for your pre-workout food and your post workout meal. If you’re pushing yourself hard in endurance training, you’ll burn more energy, so you need more carbohydrates in your post-workout meal. You should have carbohydrates that turn to energy quickly, such as fruit and slower energy carbs like whole grain breads. You should get 3/4th of your calories from carbs and 1/4th from protein. If you’re doing weight training, you need more protein to rebuild muscle tissue, so a one to one ration or 2/3rds carbs and 1/3rd protein will do.

  • When you eat before a workout, not only will you reduce that hungry feeling after you workout, you’ll also have a better workout because you’ll have more stamina and energy to give it your all.
  • One way to ensure you stay hydrated is to drink a glass of water when you first get up, drink a glass before each meal (you’ll eat less), drink a couple of glasses an hour before you exercise and a couple after you’ve finished.
  • Don’t just slam through eating, take the time to enjoy each bite. Chew each bite carefully and wait for cues that tell you that you’ve had enough to eat. Focus on flavor, but also on the feeling of fullness.
  • At Iron Fit, we provide a wide selection of exercise options that burn calories quickly and help you reach your weight loss goal.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio


Weight Loss For Lazy People

Weight Loss For Lazy People

Losing weight can take a lot of effort, especially if you’re working off the pounds at the gym. It can mean creating a weekly menu and shopping list, then making all the food on the weekend for healthy meals throughout the week. If you just know you’re not going to do that and don’t want to sweat off pounds in the gym, here are tips for weight loss for lazy people, not that you are. You can use some of these tips to supplement a program of weight loss.

Start with a planned mealtime and a sit down meal.

Eating at all hours isn’t always the easiest way to go. If you have a planned mealtime, it doesn’t take any effort, but can help you avoid snacking. When you know that dinner is in a half hour, you’ll be less likely to grab a snack from the cupboard. Sitting down at the table for all meals makes and not eating in front of the television can also make mealtime more mindful and let you watch portion control.

Fill up on water before a meal and make it cold water.

Drink an eight ounce or larger glass of water before a meal and you’ll find that you eat less. Water fills you up, not out, so you’ll eat less. One study showed that it lowered the caloric intake enough that if you just drank a glass of water before one meal a day, the number of calories you saved would cause you to shed about eight pounds a year! Cold water also makes your body burn more calories, so that can add to the loss.

Switch out that soft drink for a glass of water or unsweetened green tea.

If you drink one soft drink a day, you’re adding over 100 calories to your intake. Cutting it out and drinking water or green tea means you’ll consume 100 less calories a day and in 35 days would lose a pound. If you substituted with green tea, you’ll also be boosting your metabolism to burn even more and helping to burn belly fat. Don’t even consider diet soft drinks. Studies show they actually make you gain weight. Part of the reason is that the trigger the release of insulin, but there’s no sugar, so it disrupts the metabolic system.

  • If you want your portion to larger, try smaller plates. That certainly doesn’t take any effort to use a salad plate instead of a dinner plate.
  • Get out of sweatpants and into form fitting jeans. It’s easy to overeat in sweatpants. They kindly expand to accommodate our expanding belly. Form fitting jeans will tell you right away when you’ve eaten too much.
  • Park further from the store or walk down the stairs. I know that taking the stairs, especially going up will burn more calories, but if you’re being lazy, just take the stairs down, where it’s easier and park a little further from the store. Moving a little more throughout the day adds up.
  • When you’re ready to start a formal exercise program, try our 28 day jumpstart at Iron Fit. You’ll be amazed at how great you feel after a few workouts and never want to take the lazy person’s route again.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio