How to Rapidly Increase Your Exercise Capacity

Public health guidelines suggest 30-60 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise on most days of the week. However, despite overwhelming scientific evidence that regular activity is effective in the prevention of chronic diseases and premature death, most adults fail to meet even the minimum physical activity requirement.

Countless studies have shown that the most commonly cited reason for not exercising is a “lack of time” (Godin et al., 1994). This finding is universal; regardless of age, ethnicity, sex, or health status, people report lack of time is the primary reason for their failure to exercise on a regular basis.

Given that lack of time is such a common barrier to exercise participation is why I developed our Xpress Workouts program.

I recently read a study on the Gatorade Sports Science Institute (GSSI) website by Martin J. Gibala, PhD. on “High Intensity Interval Training (HIT): New Insights.” It reads,

“...From a practical perspective, one of the most striking findings from our recent studies was the dramatic improvement in exercise performance during tasks that rely mainly on aerobic energy metabolism, despite the very low training volume (Burgomaster et al., 2005; 2006; 2007; Gibala et al., 2006). In our initial study (Burgomaster et al., 2005) subject doubled the length of time that exercise could be maintained at a fixed submaximal workload - ~26 min to 51 min during cycling at 80% of pre-training VO2peak – after only six HIT sessions!”

Click here to read the full report

Once again more positive evidence mounts for high intensity short duration exercise such as with our 300 Workout program exclusive at our sister site, Xpress Workouts.

Robert Garza CPT, RTS

The 300 Workout for Everyday People

The Xpress Workouts 300 workout program is featured in our local Daily Herald. I was excited to take a couple of my best clients through the 300 Workout while journalist Robert McCoppin wrote a piece on it for his paper. Here is an excerpt:

"...The exercises are designed to work the body from one end to the other. They use primitive tools like medicine balls and body weight, and compound movements to involve more than one set of muscles, rather than using a machine to isolate one muscle at a time.

This type of training is a variation of what exercise geeks call peripheral heart action, a high-intensity form of circuit training. Instead of doing three sets at a time on each body part, participants go from one exercise to the next, promoting overall circulation.

The beauty of such a workout, personal trainer Robert Garza said, is that it combines cardiovascular exercise with resistance training, so you're gaining muscle at the same time you're burning calories and improving endurance.

Instead of just looking muscular, you should end up with "usable" strength and fitness that also looks ripped.

Best of all, you can get a more intense workout in a shorter amount of time."

Click Here to read the full article in the Daily Herald with additional photos.

Robert Garza, CPT, RTS

300 Workouts Now Available at www.XpressWorkouts.com

Our 300 Workouts are now available in our Xpress Workouts website! Xpress Workouts features results-driven exercise programs that will take you 30 minutes or less to complete. We have several categories to choose from such as home workouts, functional training, mass building, fat burning, and our 300 Workouts! So, with along with our 300 Workout programs you also gain access to all our workouts in the other fitness categories.

I was going to make several separate websites for each category but decided to consolidate them all within one site. This saves money for everyone since they get all workout categories for one low price instead of paying for each individual site.

But, we still offer you the option of purchasing individual workout programs by going to our Pre-Packaged site.

Visit our Xpress Workouts site to see all that we have to offer you!

The Magic of 300

What’s so magical about 300 Repetitions?

While there is nothing magical about the number 300 there is magic in what you can do with it when it comes to your workout routine.

Certainly, you can do 10 exercises for 3 sets of 10 repetitions and get a 300 repetition total. But, like a standard recipe it’s only a generalization that fitness enthusiasts have been doing for years. If it so happens to match their specific goal they’ll get a positive result. More often than not it doesn’t.

How and what you do with your 300 repetitions in a workout is what gets you to your goal with a positive result. The choice of exercise, the ratio of repetitions, the form you use, the range of motion, the speed of the repetition and the rest periods between exercises all have an effect on your result. Choose the wrong combination and it’ll take you longer to reach your goal or not reach it at all.

In our 300 workouts we devise the workout based on the goal you wish to attain. We then strategically design the workout to have you reach that goal. In other words, we take that standard recipe and add spice and flavor to have it match your specific taste; in this case, your goal.

For example, if you desire to get lean and develop a fit body that can handle many physical tasks your workout has to prepare you for that goal. You’d have to choose exercises that focus on full range of movement and that hit muscle groups at a time rather than isolating one muscle. Your repetitions may vary anywhere between 8-25 repetitions dependent upon the exercise and movement.

If you desire a more muscular build that also can perform in weekend sports you’d need to make adjustments for that goal. Your exercises may now include heavier free weight exercises with lower repetitions and longer rest periods. Specific exercises which require core stability using multiple muscle groups would also need to be incorporated for an athletic and functional capacity.

So, you see, it’s not just 300 repetitions – its how and what you do with those 300 repetitions that works magic for you.

Robert Garza, CPT, RTS

www.xpressworkouts.com

The Fitness Transformer Workout

The Fitness Transformer Workout
Using the ‘300’ Workout System

The premise behind the transformer workout is to be able to transform your everyday body into one that can perform at an optimal level.

As most of us already know, the toy Transformer is a robot that is able to "transform," or reconstruct itself, into a common and innocuous form, such as a car, an aircraft, a device, or an animal. The tagline “More Than Meets the Eye” reflects this ability.

Is your body slowly ‘transforming’ into a Gumby toy?

Your goal as a Fitness Transformer is to transform your everyday body into one that can perform in variety of functional capacities. You accomplish this by doing a series of strategic exercises designed to have you transform yourself into a lean and mean functional machine.

How to do this type of workout is that you take a basic exercise and then follow it with an exercise that has a similar movement pattern but which requires you to use a more explosive force.

In the example below the routine has you first do a regular (or modified) push-up and then follow it with a more dynamic or plyometric push-up where your hands actually come off the floor at the top of the push up. This requires that you generate more force and effort to accomplish this exercise.

1. Push-ups (15 reps)
2. Plyo-push-ups (10 reps)
3. Dumbbell pullover (15 reps)
4. Medicine ball slams (10 reps)
5. Shoulder press (15 reps)
6. Shoulder push press (10 reps)
7. Bodyweight squats (15 reps)
8. Bodyweight squat jumps (10 reps)

Click here to see a demonstrated version of this workout using moving animation.

Complete 3 circuits (i.e. going through exercises 1-8 and then repeating the sequence) and you’ll complete your 300 repetition body transforming workout.

*Comments:

1. For your base exercises (#’s 1,3,5,& 7) use a light weight - since it’s basically used to prepare you for the following explosive exercise.

2. You may want to do your base push-up in a modified kneeling position as not to tire your muscles too much for the explosive follow-up exercise.

3. Rest 30-45 seconds between each exercise and a full 2-3 minutes between each circuit.