Is Zumba really the way forward ?

The fitness world has been set alight recently with the whole "Zumba" craze.  And I'll say right now that I know very little about the whole thing other than its a dance based workoutout that burns 500 - 700 calories.

What I do know is that I've had several  Zumba enthusiasts in my bootcamps and as my clients and say what I do and what they do at Zumba are worlds apart.  In fact, Zumba got described to me more than once as a "social thing"

As a fitness "veteran" seeing lots of fitness crazes come and go over the years I separate the wheat from the chaff by asking this question.

"Can you train an olympic athlete with the methods of X" (In this case zumba)"

The answer is no, I use squats, deadlifts and clean and presses as it gets maximum results in mimimum time.  The nature of my workouts with clients burn in excess of 1000 - 1100 calories in one hour and they continue burning calories for hours after ther workout

Don't get me wrong, I think that anything that gets people exercising and enjoying themselves is fantastic, BUT is it the most effective method? Hmmm...

10 possible reasons that you aren't losing weight

1.        You say you “eat well” but in reality, you have no real idea of how many calories you eat on a given day.  Online tools such as Myfitnesspal.com can help this

2.       Your diet consists of very little natural foods

3.       You drink alcohol

4.       When you exercise, you don’t use a heart rate monitor to ensure that you are getting between 60% - 80% MHR (Maximum heart rate)

5.       You only exercise 3 hours a week(if that)

6.       You don’t do interval training

7.       You have no progression or overload factored into your workout

8.       Your workout consists of inappropriate isolation exercises such as bicep curls and leg extensions and very few compound exercises such as clean and press and squats

9.       You eat too much sugar

10.   You aren’t honest with yourself regarding exercise and diet

Eat what you want and STILL lose weight!

Many diets advocate a "cheat day" once a week where you can eat what you want.  This is good thing for a couple of reasons

- For you psychologically, you don't feel like your missing out on your favourite foods too much

- It tricks your body into thinking that you are back eating high calories. You see, your body is very efficient at burning what you are consuming, when you reduce your calories significantly, your body slows down the pace.  Eating higher calories once a week gets your body working at a higher fat burning "pace"

- I find I feel stronger for mondays workout with a few extra calories in me

Just make sure its just one day you take off though! :)

Eat your calories when you need them

You wouldn't bother fuelling a car just to leave it on the drive for 6 months, same as eating too much too late in the day



As the saying goes, Breakfast like a King, Lunch like a Prince, Dinner like a pauper.  Taper off your calories (particularly your carbs) as the day goes on giving you the calories when you most need them

Keeping motivated

Having Clear Cut SMART Goals is really important t success in any area, but you also need to know WHY you want to lose weight, and I mean hae a list of reasons, not because its january and everyone else is doing it but your own personal reasons

Motivation comes down to two things

1. All motivation is self motivaton, no one can motivate you and you can't motivate anyone else. 

2. You are either pushing away from something bad or pulling towards something good (Avoiding pain or Gaining pleasure)

Work out what these things are for you and you can achieve anything

Keep it up

Resistance Training

Resistance training i.e weights and bodyweight training need to be done to change up your body composition, increase your metabolic rate and tone up your body.  Below is a list of bodyweight/resistance band exercises that will hit up all your major muscles.  If you need guidance, give me a shout and remember this isn't meant as a complete workout and I can't take responsibility for injurys incurred without my supervision


Upper Body
Press Ups (Chest)
Resistance Band Row (Back)
Resistance Band Shoulder Press (Shoulders)
Resistance Band Bicep Curls (Biceps - Frontal Upper Arms)
Tricep Dips (Triceps - Rear Upper Arms)

Lower Body
Body Weight Squat (Quadriceps - Frontal upper Legs)
Body Weight Lunge (Hamstrings - Rear upper Legs)
Squat Thrusts (Hip Flexors, Cardiovascular)
Calf Raises (Calves)

Abs
Abdominal Crunch (Rectus abdominus)
Alternate Elbow and Alternate Knee (Obliques)
Dorsel Raise (Lower Back)
Plank, Side Plank and Crucifix (Deep Postural muscles such as the Quadratous Lumborum and Multifidus)

How to Burn Fat

Lets look at two ways of doing cardiovascular training

- Hours and hours of working at a steady state on a treadmill, cross trainer, bike or running around the street

- Sharp, fast bursts interspersed with slower recovery periods, this is called interval training

One on the left is a "steady state" marathon runner and the one on the right is an "interval" Sprinter.  Both practice the same discipline, running but have totally different physiques, which one would you prefer to have?

In my experience, if you want to lose fat, the second option, three times a week is the way forward e.g.

Walk for one minute, Jog for one minute, Run for one minute and Sprint for one minute and repeat, do this for 30 minutes and forget this "Run at the pace of chat"  On your sprint (what ever it may be for you) you need to really get out of breath!