30 MINUTE BODY PERSONAL TRAINER
MORE THAN JUST AN APP
Minute body
Personal Training Secrets Revealed!
Lance McCullough
Copyright © 2016 by Lance McCullough
All rights reserved.
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher.
ISBN: 978-0- 692-79189- 9
e-book ISBN: 978-1- 5323-2576- 2
​
Published by Fitness Results 1842 W. 11th St. #G Upland, CA 91786
(909) 608-1780
E- mail:info@fitnessresults.com
Web: www.30minutebody.com
Web: www.fitnessresultstrainingsystem.com
Printed in the United States
Illustrations by Daniel
Simeonov
T o my wife Susie for the constant support while I pursue my fitness dreams.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
​
CHAPTER 1: About the 30-minute Body Book
CHAPTER 2: My Training Philosophy
CHAPTER 3: About Resistance Weight Training
CHAPTER 4: Nutrition and Weight Loss
CHAPTER 5: My Workout Philosophy
CHAPTER 6: About the Training Methods
CHAPTER 7: My Personal Workout and Gym Experience
CHAPTER 8: Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation
CHAPTER 9: Other Sources of Information for Fitness Results
CHAPTER 10: Flexibility and Stretching
CHAPTER 11: The Importance of Resistance Weight Training as We Age
CHAPTER 12: Cardio Training and Fitness Results
CHAPTER 13: Achieving Fitness Results
CHAPTER 14: My Life Journey, or How I Developed My Training Philosophy
​
APPENDICES
SAMPLE MENUS
EXERCISE DESCRIPTIONS
NUTRITION GUIDELINES AND JOURNALS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1: About the 30-minute Body Book 1
CHAPTER 2: My Training Philosophy 13
CHAPTER 3: About Resistance Weight Training 29
CHAPTER 4: Nutrition and Weight Loss 35
CHAPTER 5: My Workout Philosophy 63
CHAPTER 6: About the Training Methods 81
CHAPTER 7: My Personal Workout and Gym Experience 89
CHAPTER 8: Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation 111
CHAPTER 9: Other Sources of Information for Fitness Results 123
CHAPTER 10: Flexibility and Stretching 133
CHAPTER 11: The Importance of Resistance Weight
Training as We Age 145
CHAPTER 12: Cardio Training and Fitness Results 157
CHAPTER 13: Achieving Fitness Results 163
CHAPTER 14: My Life Journey, or How I Developed
My Training Philosophy 187
​
APPENDICES
SAMPLE MENUS 197
EXERCISE DESCRIPTIONS 201
NUTRITION GUIDELINES AND JOURNALS 241
Here’s a startling fact – only three 30-minute workouts a week, when coupled with a well-balanced diet based on natural foods, is enough resistant weight bearing exercise for you to lose weight, achieve a toned, healthy body, increase your strength, flexibility and balance, promote mental health and overall well-being.
This book will provide the information you need to help you determine your health and fitness destination. It will cover all the topics that affect the journey so you arrive at your destination safely, efficiently and effectively. By using the information in this book, you will stay on the road to your destination without getting lost or heading in the wrong direction. I’ll steer you away from road hazards and congested traffic while shortening your travel time.
In this book I share stories of the journeys of past clients, showing you what they did to stay on the road and how they got back on the right road after getting lost. For some clients, the journey is long and I had to keep
ere’s a startling fact – only three 30-minute workouts a week, when
coupled with a well-balanced diet based on natural foods, is enough
resistant weight bearing exercise for you to lose weight, achieve
a toned, healthy body, increase your strength, exibility and balance,
promote mental health and overall well-being.
This book will provide the information you need to help you deter-
mine your health and fitness destination. It will cover all the topics that
affect the journey so you arrive at your destination safely, efficiently and
effectively. By using the information in this book, you will stay on the road to your destination without getting lost or heading in the wrong direction. I’ll steer you away from road hazards and congested traffic while shortening your travel time.
In this book I share stories of the journeys of past clients, showing you
what they did to stay on the road and how they got back on the right road after getting lost. For some clients, the journey is long and I had to keep
H
1
2
nudging them back to the road. Some clients settled for a destination that was nearer. Some even gave up. Some clients required motivation to get started; others initially thought they lacked the potential to start toward the destination.
I haven’t held anything back. This book reveals all my personal training secrets. They are based on common sense training methods that you don’t usually hear about, or are presented in a confusing or unclear manner. My goal is to teach you all my secrets in clear language that makes sense. So let’s get started!
​
Secret #1: The health and fitness industry has been lying to you!
​
The health and fitness industry has been leading you down a dangerous road to an unclear destination that is not very attractive. What this means is that the industry has been lying to you!
Instead of using common sense to test whether a newly-announced trend is safe, effective and efficient, health and fitness professionals jump on the bandwagon and push the newest fad. They don’t take the time to
weigh the risks versus the rewards, or evaluate the benefits versus the time investment. Perhaps these professionals lack confidence or knowledge, so take the path of least resistance. Or maybe they are influenced by so-called leaders in the industry and are afraid of becoming unpopular if they don’t follow the leader.
I’m a fitness professional who is not afraid to stand up for what is right even if it is not popular. I’m not afraid to call out a bad practice, especially if it will save my clients time, money and stress while helping them achieve
their health and fitness goals.
Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. Core training – situps, crunches, reverse crunches, side crunches, hanging leg raises, etc. – is frequently recommended as a fitness program. It consistently appears in the annual fitness trend forecast published by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). The forecast is based on survey responses from thousands of fitness professionals, and lists the Top 20 trends for each year.
3
A new exercise gaining popularity is the plank. There are many plank techniques, but I want to discuss the one that is basically a pushup position at full arm extension. The goal is to hold that position as long as you can, and to increase the time with every repetition. 30 seconds is good; one minute is even better.
I see all kinds of articles touting the benefits of the plank. What I don’t see is information on the negatives. The stated benefit of the plank is strengthening the core. But muscle strength is built by movement. The plank is an isometric exercise, and therefore produces minimal muscle development and very little increased strength. It does produce soreness which gives the illusion of benefit. But the plank requires investing a lot of time to produce minimum results. Although isometric exercises are slightly better than nothing and can be used in physical therapy when nothing else is available, it is not an efficient way to strengthen core muscles.
Between 2007 and 2010, core training was listed at #5. Between 2011 and 2015, it bounced around at #6, #7, #9, #13 and #15 respectively. In 2016, it slipped to #19 out of 20 trends – just barely making the list.
How could this happen? If core training is essential, how could it move so dramatically over a nine-year period? The answer is simple. New trends appeared and pushed core training aside. Body weight training, high intensity interval training (HIIT), and now even wearables (the #1 trend in the 2016 ACSM survey) have overtaken core training. And as core training has slipped in popularity, information is coming out about the hidden dangers of area-specific training.
Interestingly, strength training, which is what I recommend in the 30-Minute Body book, has consistently been in the Top 5.
A new exercise gaining popularity is the plank. There are many plank techniques, but I want to discuss the one that is basically a pushup position at full arm extension. The goal is to hold that position as long as you can, and to increase the time with every repetition. 30 seconds is good; one minute is even better.
I see all kinds of articles touting the benefits of the plank. What I don’t see is information on the negatives. The stated benefit of the plank is strengthening the
core. But muscle strength is built by movement.
The plank is an isometric exercise, and therefore produces
minimal muscle development and very little increased strength.
It does produce soreness which gives the illusion of benefit. But the plank requires investing a lot of time to produce minimum results. Although isometric exercises are slightly better than nothing and can be used in physical therapy when nothing else is available, it is not an efficient way to strengthen core muscles.
4
The plank comes with a lot of negatives. When in the plank position, you are holding up your entire body weight for extended periods. This puts a lot of stress on your wrists, elbows and shoulders. If you weigh 150 lbs. and I asked you to lay on the bench press and hold a bar weighing 75 lbs. for 30 seconds to one minute, you would say, no way, especially if your bench press was less than that. But that’s exactly what you’d be doing with the plank.
Doing the plank puts your wrists, elbows and shoulders at risk of injury, creates discomfort, and results in minimal core strengthening. Common sense should tell you that the risks outweigh the benefits and that there must be a better way to achieve a stronger core. (Hint: there is!) Let’s analyze another popular body weight exercise – the burpee. To perform a burpee, you begin in a standing position, go to a squatting forward position with hands on the ground, kick your feet out to a pushup position, return to squatting position and back to standing position, then repeat. Depending on your body weight, you could be putting 600+ lbs. of pressure on your upper body with each rep when you consider the relationship between distance, time, velocity, speed and impact force.
Imagine that you have a piece of wood that you want to drive a nail into. If you take a 24 oz. hammer and set it gently on top of a nail, the nail will fall over when you remove the hammer. However, if you raise the hammer away from the nail then drop the hammer head, you will drive the nail into the wood. Raise the hammer higher and bring it down with greater force, and you’ll drive the nail even further into the wood.
The burpee movement is like using a hammer (your body weight) to drive a nail. The faster and more vigorously you do the exercise, the more force you put on your body and the greater the risk of injury. Unless you are an athlete looking for peak performance, the risk will never outweigh the rewards.
Exercises like the plank and burpee are being touted as what you must do to start an exercise program. No wonder people are apprehensive about starting a health and fitness program. The health and fitness industry
5
adopts exercises meant for elite athletes, then tells beginners that this is what they have to do. This is absolutely not what you should be doing. I am 53 years old and a champion weight lifter, and this is not appealing to me at all. I am in exceptional shape without using risky exercises, and can assure you that you do not have to do planks, burpees and similar exercises to achieve your health and fitness goals.
Americans are spending more on health and fitness yet are in the worst state of overall health and fitness ever. The health and fitness industry caters to those who are looking for an instant and easy way to achieve their health and fitness goals by developing “miracle” products and programs.
Self-proclaimed experts make promising claims and pay for celebrity endorsements. The media publicizes the product or program and people flock to them because they are desperate and hope that this time, it will be different.
​​
My guarantee to you: this time it will be different!
​​
Now is the time to personally take charge of your own health and fitness by using the knowledge in this book. I am so confident that my methods work that I give you this guarantee: if you don’t think this book added value or resulted in positive changes to your overall health and fitness, I will refund your money, no questions asked. You’re on the honor system. Just send me your purchase receipt and contact information and you’ll receive my check for a full refund. To help me learn from your experience, I’d appreciate your sharing why my program didn’t work for you.
​
Benefits of Resistance Weight Training
​
I often claim that resistance weight training and exercise is the closest thing you’ll ever need to a fountain of youth. It benefits both body and mind; muscles, bones and brain; and contributes to your quality of life by keeping you strong and active. While all this might sound too good to be true, it’s not.
6
Before I discuss the benefits of resistance weight training, I must state a caveat: you will only realize the full benefit if you follow the guidelines given in the 30-Minute Body. Sadly, most people working out aren’t doing that. I estimate that as few as 7-8% of all people who exercise regularly at home or in a gym are actually achieving all the possible benefits.
Resistance weight training benefits your entire body, but especially your muscles, bones, joints, heart, skin, metabolism and brain. It has a positive effect on your strength, stamina, balance, coordination, flexibility, body shape, energy level and outlook on life.
​​
Muscles and Bones
​
A resistance weight training program will cause you to gain or increase your muscle mass. is makes you stronger and gives you the ability to do more things with greater ease. Your muscles become better defined, adding contours to your body that produce a desirable and appealing shape. Women who build muscle mass acquire a more feminine shape, while men look more masculine.
You’ll be building stronger bones, making them less porous and slowing down the rate of bone loss that occurs normally as you age.
​
Joint Stability
​
Stronger muscles and bones mean more joint stability, protecting your body from injury like a suit of armor. You’ll be less prone to arthritis and premature wearing of the joints. As you lose weight, you will reduce the stress on joints like knees and ankles. By building a better balanced mus- musculoskeletal system, your entire body will function harmoniously, further reducing the risk of injury, aches and pains.
​
Higher Resting Metabolic Rate
​
As muscle mass builds, you need more calories to sustain your weight at
7
rest, resulting in a higher resting metabolic rate. A resistance weight training workout raises your metabolic rate for up to 23 hours as your body deals with cellular disorientation, the result of lifting and pushing with maximum effort. Your cells get out of sequence, requiring extra energy to resequence. The resequencing process can take up to 23 hours, and your metabolic rate will continue to be slightly elevated for an additional 12 hours.
​​
Brain Function
As you work your muscles, you increase blood ow to the brain. It takes a lot of brain activity to coordinate the mechanisms of the body, and increased blood ow helps the brain make everything work together. I fully expect that future scientific discoveries will show even greater benefits to the brain from resistance weight training than we know of today, including reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
​
Coordination
Resistance weight training promotes greater coordination by increasing the mind-muscle connection, training muscle fibers to work together more effectively, increasing your body awareness, and enhancing brain function. With the increased strength, cardiovascular conditioning, blood flow and cell rejuvenation that results from resistance weight training, your entire body will function better. You will have more energy, feel more active and productive, and perform daily tasks better.
​​
Cardiovascular Condition and Health
​
Resistance weight training can contribute to VO2 Max (maximal oxygen uptake) which is related to recovery heart rate (how fast your heart recovers and returns to a lower rate after being elevated). This is an important measure of good health and promotes lower blood pressure.
8
Skin
A recent study of people over 60 years old who exercise regularly found that their skin was similar to that of 30-40 year olds. A group of 65-year olds who had not been exercising began 30-minute workouts twice a week. After three months, the group had skin comparable to 30-40 year olds. While exercise does not reverse skin damage due to sun exposure, it does reverse damage from the aging process.
​
Outlook on Life
​
When you are healthy, strong, and at the right weight, your outlook on life will improve. You’ll be less prone to depression, will feel motivated and able to make healthy choices, have confidence and self-esteem. You will reduce your risk of illness and sleep better. All this sounds too good to be true, but it’s not. It is the reason why I claim that resistance weight training is the closest thing there is to the fountain of youth.
​​
Secret #2: I know what I’m talking about.
​
I am a world champion bench press lifter and I have conducted over 100,000 personal training sessions as a certied personal trainer. From my competition days, I learned what kind of training regimen worked for me – and for my competitors. As a personal trainer, I have learned what works for all different kinds of people – youth and seniors; professional and amateur athletes; Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, Millennials. I learned and applied the science of training on my road to becoming a world champion. I perfected the art of training in more than 100,000 personal training sessions with clients. I have combined the science and art of training into my unique health and fitness program that is safe, ecient and eective. As a gym owner, I have hired many personal trainers over the years. From this I have learned that bodybuilders and weightlifters know the art
9
but not the science of training. These trainers might suggest that a client undertake a training regimen that was not the best or the safest – because the trainer only knew what worked for their training, but lacked knowledge of the science. These trainers did not know how to balance the risk versus the reward of a client’s training program. at inevitably led to compromising safety, efficiency and effectiveness, producing less-than desirable fitness results.
Likewise, a trainer with a college degree – maybe even an advanced degree, or a degree in physical therapy – may understand the science but not the art. While safety might not be an issue, efficiency and effectiveness are because these trainers lack basic knowledge of the gym environment. Again, that leads to a compromise on efficiency and effectiveness of the training regime.
My success as a personal trainer is based on my knowledge of the science of health and fitness – the mechanics of how to achieve goals – and the art of training – learning how to successfully guide a client to achieving his or her goals. What I add to this is the ability to educate clients with easy-to-understand instructions and explanations. at’s the heart of this book – my realization that achieving fitness results is all about choices. If you are given the right information that is easy to understand, you gain knowledge and become empowered to make the right choices.
Personal training clients at my gym are given information that keeps them engaged and interested in the training process. They are not blind followers of instructions and are not looking for the quick fix. Instead, they want to know what lies behind the training methods and the nutrition program. They want to understand why the trainers do this instead of that. They are curious about why the trainers appear to contradict conventional information about personal training or nutrition.
This book is the next-best thing to being a personal training client at my gym, Fitness Results. In it I’ve revealed my secrets, knowing it will inspire you to realize your fitness goals. I’ll give you information to help you through the tough times. I’ll prepare you to make the most of your workout time and to take control of your fitness goals when outside the gym.
10
This book is a compilation of textbook learning and practical application gathered over more than 20 years in the tness industry. Like all such compilations, it won’t answer every question or fit every individual circumstance. While hundreds of clients have benefitted from and achieved their fitness goals using the methods discussed in this book, it won’t work for everyone, every time, in every circumstance. So when you are reading the book, use common sense and strive to understand the spirit of the words as well as their exact meaning. And if you have a specific medical or physical condition for which you have received advice that is at odds with what is in this book, follow the advice of your medical professional. Now let’s get to work on Your Fitness Results.
Why You Can Trust Me
​
I’ve had a passion for health and fitness training since high school. My initial interest in resistance weight training was to enhance my performance potential on the football team, but I soon discovered that weightlifting was my true passion. While still in high school, I joined a gym where I combined my natural ability with hard work and a personal training regimen. That led me to competing nationally and internationally as a weight lifter. In 1998 my competition career reached its highest point when I won the Amateur Athletic Union World Bench Press Championship and set a new world record. Always a motivated self-starter, I have a lifelong pattern of challenging myself and pushing my limits. During high school I earned the rank of Eagle Scout. With the support of my parents, I worked during high school and at age 18 was the youngest person ever to enter the meat cutter apprentice program from the grocery chain that employed me. I paid my own way through the program, learning a lot about business in the process. During my years in competition, I developed my personal philosophy of how to use resistance weight training to achieve health and fitness goals. I have been applying my philosophy ever since to benefit my personal fitness clients. Certified as a personal trainer by the Aerobics and
11
Fitness Association of America (AFAA) since 1989, I have been working in the fitness industry for over 30 years. Aer managing several gyms on behalf of others, my wife Susie and I opened Fitness Results in 1994. In addition to my personal training clientele, I employ other personal trainers who have completed the Fitness Results internship program run in conjunction with a local community college. I speak to groups on topics related to health and fitness. I also serve as a consultant to private businesses wishing to develop fitness programs for their employees. In these instances, I’ve designed a gym at the business location, procured the equipment, and hired personal training staff that helps employees become and stay fit and healthy. And fit, healthy employees mean an improved bottom line for the business. Besides activities within the fitness industry, I support many community organizations. I refurbished a local high school weight training room with up-to-date and safe equipment; donated equipment to the YMCA and other organizations; and regularly donate to health- and fitness-related causes. I recently organized an effort to send care packages to troops overseas.
12
My personal mission is to change society’s views on the importance of resistance weight training and proper nutrition as the basis of a health and tness program that improves coordination, promotes healthy bones and muscles, and acts to reduce the effects of disease, and aging.
Now that you have the knowledge and background from Lance's latest book, learn to utilize it with our new online training system. It's like having the professional assistance of a personal trainer right in the palm of your hand. Use it anytime and anywhere on your mobile device!
Now that you have the knowledge and background from Lance's latest book, learn to utilize it with our new online training system. It's like having the professional assistance of a personal trainer right in the palm of your hand. Use it anytime and anywhere on your mobile device!
