Those of you that know me, know that I am a man of science and WILL NOT attach my name and reputation to just anything. They have gone through the extra effort of becoming GMP certified. GMP means Good Manufacturing Practices. Nutritional supplements are not FDA regulated. In the absence of that, a GMP certification with third party auditors ensures inspections of dietary supplement manufacturing facilities to determine whether specified performance standards on a number of measures—including quality control, cleanliness, receiving and testing of raw materials—are being met.

All of the ingredients are something I feel comfortable ingesting, myself. In fact, they don’t use artificial sweetners (aspartame) which make other supplements like workout shakes taste crappy. They use Stevia which is a non-caloric sweetner which also has a nutritional content and contains fiber. And there aren’t any strange herbs or anything. It’s very good stuff. Just good old fashioned nutrients.
Like I said, I won’t attach my name to just anything and after nearly 3 years of research, this is it!

S.P.A.R.T.A.’s Pro Grade Nutritional Supplement Line

Today is the first day of the launch. We’ve started with the basics like men’s and women’s line of multivitamins, whey protein powder, and pre and post workout drink.
BE SURE TO STAY TUNED because in the following days, I’ll be releasing a new product each day.

Tuesday - Meal Replacement with 35 grams protein and 8 grams of fiber.

Wednesday - Nutritional bars “Cravers” only 180 cals. No trans fats and comes in peanut butter, almond butter, and spirulina. Healthy dark chocolate to satisfy that chocolate craving.

Thursday – Essential Fatty Acids. Reduce your risk of early death from cardiovascular disease by 50%. It’s krill oil which is just as effective and won’t give you “fish burps”. I’m a huge supporter of essential fatty acids for everything from brain health to it’s anti-inflammatory properties.

Friday – The week will be culminating in the release of the weight loss product, METABOLISM. This link will come with one of the best articles on metabolic effects of certain nutrients I’ve ever read. This is a great natural product at the right dosage so as not to cause the side effects of other weight loss products.

This is big. If you’d like a reasonably priced supplement line that you can feel safe taking and expect good results, I’ve found it for you through my own research. I’m very skeptical and I haven’t seen anything that would make me not want to be a part of this or not want to attach my name and reputation to it.

So here’s that link again. Come in and check out what we’ve got available. Thank you.

S.P.A.R.T.A.’s Prograde Nutritional Supplement Product Line

The Skyndex is probably the best body fat caliper on the market. This is the one with 2 formulas programmed into it. It has the Jackson-Pollock formula which is good and reasonably accurate for everyday use and the Durnin formula if you ever plan to need it for research or a clinical setting. Or if you just want to be a little more accurate. It’s easy to use. You set the dial to a number that corresponds to a range of the subject’s age. Then take 3 or 4 sites to measure, entering each one as you go by pressing the thumb button. When you are done, it automatically goes through the formula for you and give you the body fat percentage on the digital display. It’s the best one I’ve used to date. Everybody claims hydrostatic weighing is the gold standard, but you have to measure tidal volume. If you don’t, it’s not any more accurate than calipers. Plus, hydrostatic weighing requires extra time, a wet area, etc. It’s a hassle. Why not just get reasonably close to the same results in a much more practical product? Comes with its’ own case and power supply.

This is the Lange skinfold caliper. It’s a little more cost effective option, but is not digital. It is very compact and comes in a small case that you could easily store in your gym bag or something. This is the second best body fat caliper I have ever used. It takes a little more time because it isn’t digital, but it is VERY well constructed and will last you a long time. It comes with a calibration block to ensure accuracy. It’s accurate down to within 1 millimeter.

Garmin make some awesome stuff. This is the Forerunner. It’s a GPS with a heart rate monitor and stop watch mounted on the wrist. It’s pretty cool and you can use it to compete with previous workouts for yourself or use it in the gym to time client’s sets and/or workouts.

The PT/Pro Bench is great. For you in home trainers, it’s an excellent portable option for a professional adjustable bench. It’s got a carrying handle and strap for you to easily maneuver from location to location. It’s pretty versatile for just about any type of training you want to do. At 23 pounds, it’s heavy duty too so you don’t have to worry about it falling apart on you.

The Bowflex SelecTech Dumbbells. These could also be portable if you want to lug them around. It’ll replace a whole rack of them. Between the PT/Pro Bench and these, you could really put together a good program for someone. They are fully adjustable and should satisfy the needs of most clients going from 5-52.5 lbs. each. This link even has many of the routines and exercises you can do listed right out for you.

Bodylastics are a great complement to the bench and the SelecTech dumbbells. Very lightweight and versatile with door anchor and ankle straps. You can load up multiple bands at a time with the carabiner clip totalling 127 pounds per side.

The TRX is hot right now and it was specifically invented to use where equipment is lacking. That’s one of the hardest things to address is pulling exercises for the upper back (latissimus) when there is little equipment around. Not everyone can do a pull up. That’s one of the benefits of the TRX is that you can use your body weight (or only a fraction of it) in a way that will allow you to address those previously neglected areas. This one is a cool military green color. It’s VERY well made and should last you a very long time.

This is the online training system that we use. It can allow you to get at previously unreachable markets and disperse your fitness knowledge to people over distance. We private label our site through their enterprise account and our own domain name so it looks like the clients are signing up right through us. All you need is a paypal account. Like I said, this is good for people at distance or a good downsell to someone that cannot afford your services one on one. It has a library of fitness routines, a workout wizard, and nutrition tracking. You can set your own pricing and customize the users experience as much as you want.

If you have your own location, a good scale is a must. A physician’s balance beam model is the way to go as you can calibrate it easier and they are more reliable. You can also measure height with this model.

Myotape is a great tool to use in place of a regular measuring tape. You can measure up to sixty inches and the push button tape retraction makes it a little easier than fumbling with a cumbersome normal tape measure.

Robic is one of the best companies out there for timers. Here they have a clipboard with a ruler/straight edge down the side as well as a stopwatch/calculator combo. You’re covering all of your bases with this one as you can time client activities and calculate anthropometric measurements as clients come in during the day.

This is Sportline’s digital tally counter. I don’t know about you, but the traditional way of counting reps gets in the way of instructing the client mid set. With this tool, you can click off the reps as the client completes them while you continuously instruct them. Then you can look at the total countable reps you clicked off to record after the set is complete. It frees your mind to focus more on what you should be…instructing the client, not counting to 10. You can obtain a lot of data while fully instructing a client. You can time the whole workout, time each set with the clipboard, and track whole reps with the tally counter. All of those numbers should give you a really good idea of what kind of progress your clients are making.

Another testing device is the flex tester sit and reach. Probably the most used test to determine flexibility improvements. Obtain readings in metric or standard. It is well made and accurate with the height of the box at the subject’s hands.

Here is another portable option if you’d like to have clients do a chin up or pull up. This bar has multiple different hand grips and won’t cause damage to the door frame. It can also be used as an anchor point for a band or other suspension device like the TRX.

So there you have it. 14 awesome tools you can implement in your personal training business if you don’t already have them.

Be sure to sign up here.

Wanted to share this video with you today to show you 2 things.

1. The awesome snow storm we got in VA that’s at 2 feet and counting. Supposed to go until tomorrow morning.

And..

2. Our 28 Day Rapid Fat Loss Program coming up starting Jan. 2nd. Listen for the details below.

Go to 28 Day Rapid Fat Loss Program to sign up.

If you’re not local on the East coast in VA and can’t get in on this killer program, you can get the same routiness and advice through our online training solution. Perfect for people at distance and a fraction of the cost too. Only $19. Go here to sign up.

I want to talk about an idea that I had that might be a successful strategy for some of you. Many people wake up each day trying to lose fat and put in a lot of effort to restrict, restrict, restrict calorie intake. The only trouble with this is it’s kind of a negative emotion evoking way to think.

So as I’ve talked with many of you lots of times, your body is not operating on exactly a 24 hour basis so even if you are averaging a deficit over 3-5 days, you’ll still lose. I figure that if you would like to lose 10 lbs, that equals a solid block of 35,000 calories. Start your fat loss with that chunk in mind and each day you are below your limit, subtract that out of the original chunk. If you are in a surplus, add that back into the original. There is a caveat here. You cannot go too low either. If you don’t eat enough and go below your lower limit, ADD that amount back in. Going too low and delving into shutdown mode is just as bad, if not worse, than consistently eating too much.

The idea here is to gradually whittle down that origninal chunk. And because there will be some good days and some ones where you over do it, just keep whittling down. On average, as you whittle down, you’ll lose. The act of whittling down should feel like a success in your mind (like winning a game) versus constantly thinking negatively that you have to restrict what your are consuming, or avoiding foods you like, etc.

Of course, this is going to require that you know what your metabolism is to begin with. Be sure to pay attention over the next couple days as I’ll be putting up another post especially about accurately determining what your specific metabolism is.

Enjoy your holiday with you family and don’t stress about how much you are consuming. If you’ve been doing well up until now, you should have a nice deficit built up and a bigger cushion going into the big day. We’ll get right back on track after the holiday is over.

This is an absolute must read for anyone taking or that has taken weight loss products that they assume to be natural or herbal. These products are quite pervasive in the market lately and chances are many people are consuming them daily thinking that they may be harmless because of those natural or herbal labels. The FDA’s list has grown to 72 of these products that contain undeclared and ACTIVE pharmaceutical drugs.

Read FDA Uncovers Additional Tainted Weight Loss Products

S.P.A.R.T.A.’s position is that with proper education and calorie control, reasonable and safe fat loss will occur. There are very few supplements we might recommend outside of multi-vitamin and fish oil or calcium. Many of these products labeled thermogenic are stimulants at best. If you have questions about this subject or something similar, we can refer you to a registered dietician who can provide a more detailed answer.