30 May

The 7 Laws of Fat Loss

1. Visualization

It all starts with the mind.

Visualize the person you want to become. Picture yourself very lean, walking on the beach and receiving all those compliments for your hard work. Feed your subconscious mind with those images day and night. Whether you believe in the power of visualization or not, this law really works. It’s up to you to decide if you are going to use the most powerful tool in the universe. I personally use visualization in all areas of my life, personal and professional. Just the fact that I am sitting here and writing this article is a result of applying this law.

2. Goal Setting and Deadlines

One of my favorite quotes is from Arnold Schwarzenegger: “You can have the best ship or plane in the world, but if the captain doesn’t know where to go it will just drift around and never get anywhere.” In order to hit a target you first need to have one. Create your goals and write them down on a piece of paper. Only then can you really engage your subconscious mind. Most of the people who are successful today have their goals written down. Always set a deadline for your goals. This will keep you focused.

There is a very important question you have to answer as well: Why are you doing this? Your why has to be strong enough to wake you up and push you when you feel like giving up on your goals.

3. Sleep

This is one of the most important things for fat loss. Your body needs 7-9 hours of sleep for optimal hormonal balance. And when I say sleep, I mean quality sleep. Here are few tips to help you sleep better:

Allow at least 3 hours from the time you had a dinner before going to bed
Don’t look at any screens (TV, laptop, smartphones) 2-3 hours before bed
Listen to an audio book or read
Make sure the room is dark
Different forms of magnesium will help promote sleep
Set the thermostat for 68-70 °F degrees (20 °C), the perfect sleeping temperature.

Never snack after dinner. You need to allow 11-12 hours without food from your dinner to your breakfast the next day. This follows the natural cycle of a hormone called leptin which is the most powerful fat storage hormone.

4. Water Intake

The first thing to put in your body in the morning should be water. Start your day with the juice of half a lemon and a pinch of sea salt in a cup of warm water to help detox your liver and prepare your stomach for digestion. Then, throughout the day, aim to get around 2-3 liters of water. Juice, coffee and sodas are NOT water. Many times, we confuse the feeling of hunger with the feeling of thirst and we give our body food when what it really needs is water

5. Insulin stabilization

I love the look on people’s faces when I tell them that they need to cut out or drastically down on carbohydrates. “But I need my oatmeal in the morning!” is a common response. The answer is actually, no, you don’t need the oatmeal unless you’re an athlete expending mass amounts of calories and requiring more fuel for performance. Carbs are the only non-essential nutrient, meaning your body will be totally fine without them. Once you cut the carbs and lose the fat you want, you can slowly re-introduce them in moderate quantities.

I want to share an interesting study that was done in the University of Michigan. This is for all of you cereal lovers. Rats were divided into two groups. One group was fed cereal and the other was fed the box of the cereal (yes, the cardboard box.) The group that ate the cereal died first. I will let you draw your own conclusions here. Think about that next time you have cereal for breakfast. A low-carb breakfast is a much better way to start the day. It will energize you and you will avoid that sleepy feeling you have after eating oatmeal.

6. Training

I wish I could tell you that there is shortcut or magic pill for getting lean. There is only ONE way to get results which is work, hard work. For fat loss, you should train 4 to 6 times a week for the best results. And don’t worry if you can train only 2 or 3 times – it’s still better than 0.

The best way to lose fat is to build muscle. You need weight training in order to succeed. This is like investing. You want to see the results for the long term. Make the weights your best friends. Free weights are superior to machines. Focus on exercises that give you the most bang for your buck like squats, deadlifts, pullups, bench presses and rows. Make sure you find a quality instructor to show you proper form as they are very complex exercises. Cardio when done in the right way will help as well.

7. Tracking Progress

The scale is not always the best way to figure out if what you’re doing is working. Have your body fat percentage checked once a week and take pictures to track your progress. It’s a great motivation tool when you see the numbers moving in the direction you want!

There are many factors that can affect the fat loss, but these 7 laws are what I’ve found to be the most effective. Stay tuned for more details! I will be going more in-depth on each one in future posts. Assuming you do not have any major medical conditions that might require special consideration, I’m confident these laws will help you achieve your fat loss goals.

One thing to keep in mind is that everyone is different, so having an individual assessment conducted by a qualified professional including medical history, nutrition, lifestyle and exercise evaluation will help maximize and fast-track your results.

Please feel free to contact us. We provide personal training and fitness chef services (we cook for you) in the Washington DC area. Worldwide online coaching is available as well.

Get lean,

Coach Dimitar Pavlov

30 Mar

5 TIPS for Fighters to stay injury FREE

By Dimitar Pavlov In Health /

In this article I will talk about something very important: injuries. I’ve been practicing martial arts all my life.

From a very early age, I started with judo and sambo. Later, I trained in boxing, kickboxing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and MMA (mixed martial arts). These sports are amazing, and they can completely transform your life. They build your body and spirit, and give you the confidence you need to conquer the world. Nothing comes close to the pleasure that a person experiences while practicing and improving in sports like these. I can talk about the benefits of martial arts all day but this is not the main subject of this blog. I will talk about the dark side -injuries. Yes, being involved in fighting sports opens up huge possibilities for injuries. Everyone who’s serious about their training has been there. It’s hard. It’s depressing. Its sucks. But if you train smart you will decrease the chance of getting hurt.

Both my love for martial arts and my profession as a Personal Trainer gives me a deeper understanding of body mechanics, and the opportunity to help people who share my passions for combat sports.

1. TOTAL BODY STRUCTURAL BALANCE

Every sport has specific movement patterns that develop certain muscles. If you follow the rule that practice makes perfect, you may pick a couple of moves that you focus on until you master them. For example, boxers need to throw punches to develop specific endurance. Doing these exercises for years makes their pectoral and anterior shoulders muscles very tight. Their posterior chain muscles (rhomboids and lower trapezius) stay relatively weaker. Over time, this can lead to impingement issues. You need to have structural balance in order to stay healthy and injury free. You must have a good stretching program for the tight areas and a strengthening program for the weaker muscles. Some of the best assessments to find muscle imbalances are the Overhead Squats and the difference between push and pull strength. Find a specialist to assess your body and design the best program for you. This will ensure your best performance in the gym, and will keep you there

2. Grip work

The wrist and the hands are the most commonly injured areas in fighters. Knowing this, every fighter should spend time focusing on strengthening their grip and forearms. The best way to do this is by using thick bars and dumbbells. The diameter of the men’s Olympic bar is 28 mm (1.1 inches). A thick bar is around 50-76 mm (2-3 inches).

A study published in the International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics in 1992 looked at the training effects of three different bar diameters. To determine the neuromuscular effects of each grip, the researchers used electromyographic (EMG) testing. Using the larger diameter bar produced the greatest neuromuscular response. This is evidence that using thick-bar training can increase not only strength–especially in the more powerful fast-twitch muscle fibers–but also performance when the athlete goes back to a regular barbell, by as much as 10-12 percent. If your gym doesn’t have these types of bars you can use special handles that attach to a regular bar. These are called FAT GRIPZ, and you can buy them from Amazon. You can use them on bars, dumbbells, chin-up bars and many other places.

This type of training must be performed at the end of your routine as it’s very challenging and will affect your performance on the other exercises.

3. Neck training

Neck training in fighting is life insurance. A strong neck is essential because it helps transfer the force received by the punch in the head to the torso. This will help avoid heavy concussions and brain injuries.

Due to the high risk of concussions in American football, coaches have been experimenting with specialized neck training programs to see if they can reduce the incidence of concussions. Coaches from the University of Memphis during the 2010 and 2011 seasons were able to reduce concussions by 50% after implementing a neck strength program.

When I say neck exercise I’m not talking about doing wresting bridges, as this puts too much stress on the ligaments. The best way to train the neck is seated on a machine. You need to perform 4 basic movements: flexion, extension, lateral flexion and rotation. You need to perform these movements very slowly and never go to failure, as those muscles are easy to strain

4. PREVENTING SHOULDER INJURIES

Shoulder injuries are the second most common after injuries to the hands and wrist. To minimize your risk, the best approach is to reduce the amount of stress your shoulders are exposed to during training, while also increasing their ability to tolerate stress.

Use the right gloves. Don’t use MMA gloves on a heavy bag. Spend the most time on a double end speed bag. Your shoulders will thank you later.
Avoid doing exercise that’s heavy on the shoulders. An example is hitting a tire with sledgehammer. It’s a great exercise for the oblique abdominal muscles but it’s very hard on your shoulders.
Never use bands for shadow boxing. Only use them in the weight room attached to a barbell. This type of training should be done wisely because it’s stressful on the shoulders. However, in moderation, it can do wonders.

5. Insufficient stretching

One of the biggest mistakes some athletes make is with stretching. They increase the possibility of injury without even knowing it. Doing the wrong stretch before a workout can affect strength as well. You need to know what type of stretching to perform before and after your training. You should do dynamic stretching before training and static and PNF at the end.

A very popular method is Fascial Stretch Therapy created by Chris and Ann Frederick. With this method you can target the fascia, a type of connective tissue that runs throughout the body and provides stability to the limbs.
Foam rollers are another famous item at the gym. Although they have value in postural correction by helping to open up the intervertebral spaces in the spine, research suggests they have little value in improving flexibility.

In an eight-week study published in 2006 involving 23 men and women, results suggested that 30 sec of foam rolling on each of the lower-limbs and back had no effect on performance and flexibility.

P.S:

Now you have all the knowledge that I wish I had 10 years ago. This is knowledge I have collected from the best coaches and mentors in the sports world, as well as talking to many doctors, physical therapists, and trainers in many different specialties, and my personal experience.

All of these things will help you minimize your risk of injury and enjoy your time at the gym. But we’re talking about martial arts, and there will always be some risk. No matter what precautions you take, you may still get injured. If that happens, don’t “work through the pain” because you might create a chronic injury that will be harder to recover from. Fix the problem and then go back to the gym. I will give you my final tip for that:

A.R.T. or Active Release Technique is an aggressive soft-tissue treatment created by Dr. Michael Leahy. This technique treats alterations in tissue texture and tension to increase range of motion and improve muscle function. A.R.T. is especially effective for resolving chronic injuries quickly. A good A.R.T. practitioner will improve your condition 20-30% with a single treatment, and 90% after five treatments. If you don’t see significant improvements within five sessions CHANGE the practitioner.

Stay Strong,