The Kings (and Queen) of all Media!

Well it has been quite a week! All Canadian Fitness was featured for a full hour on CHML- AM 900 radio with host Jamie West on thursday morning. Ernie, Adam and Sheila spoke on a wide range of topics including the importance of building muscle to achieve superior fitness results, Adam's recent Shoot Boxing tournament win in Japan and Sheila's opinion of training men vs. women. The show was also broadcast on Cable 14 TV. It was exciting and lots of fun and the beginning of great things to come. The full broadcast will be added to our site asap.

We are also being featured on the personal BLOG of Hamilton Spectator/ Toronto Star columnist Lorraine Sommerfeld who is once again working with us for a special assignment. Last year, we turned her into a boxer in two weeks and this year, we are getting her ready to drive, hike and basically survive the mountainous terrain in Argentina where she will be testing a new SUV as a special assignment. Check out the blog here: http://www.lorraineonline.ca/blog/ Very cool.

Lastly, the Hamilton Spectator Reader's Choice Awards nominees were released this past week. Ernie (me!) has been nominated as Hamilton's favourite Personal Trainer. Wow!

Supportive Breakfast!

Here is an awesome breakfast idea for you to try. Take a Flax Waffle (available at Fortinos in the Health Food Section). Top with cottage cheese and fruit yogourt. Sprinkle ground flax seed on top for added crunch and an amazing source of essential fatty acids (EFA's) which help your body to burn fat and hold onto muscle. Enjoy with a cup of coffee and get on with your day. Supportive eating is not hard, it just takes some thought.

.........She's baaaaaack!

I am so proud that my favourite girl is back! My wife Liesa has just started training with us again after a bit of a summer break. She has been kicking butt at The Studio with Adam and Sheila and is making killer progress already. Check out the core stability work that Sheila put her through in the pic above. Also, if you read my earlier post about the "home" workout I came up with for weekends when the kids make it impossible to get your whole session in, check out the pic above of Liesa training at home in the yard, while the kids do their thing in the background. It just takes a little imagination....

Rockin' with Vegas!

Hey all, check out these pics from last week's "Swimming to Vegas" gig at Baranga's on the Beach in Burlington. We played for Lakeport Breweries end of year bash. What a blast! Can't wait to do it again.

Part 3 of my CD (10 More Earth SHAKERS to get you moving)

Here is another list of my top workout songs. My mixed CD is turning into a Box Set!


Hungry for Heaven- Dio
One Step Closer- Linkin Park
No Easy Way Out- Robert Tepper
Paralyzed- Finger Eleven
Bulls on Parade- Rage Against the Machine
Soul Sacrifice- Santana
Freewheel Burning- Judas Priest
Stronger than All- Pantera
Pull Me Under- Dream Theater
Wildest Dreams- Iron Maiden

Supportive Eating...the 3 "P"s

I came across a great tip for anyone who is having trouble getting organized in terms of eating healthfully and supportively in their everyday life. Keoni Subiono, a colleague of mine who trains in Hawaii, sent me this bit of advice that he teaches to his clients. Rather than being overwhelmed by how to begin eating supportively, he asks his clients to look at their lives, determine how they should be eating to support their health and fitness goals and then to implement the 3 "P"s.

Plan- Figure out where you will be throughout the day and what is your best food option based on where you will be.

Prepare- Prepare any food, snacks, meals, shakes or whatever before you leave the house. This could be as simple as throwing a loaf of whole grain bread, some carrot sticks and some canned tuna into a lunch bag to bring to work. If you are at the mercy of the drive thru or the vending machine, you'll be in trouble!

Pack- You can't bring it with you if you don't pack it! Take stock of what you have in terms of tupperware, shaker bottles, baggies etc... and fill in the gaps. Buy a thermos or cooler bag if you need one. Planning and preparing food is pointless if you don't pack it and bring it with you.

I would also stress the importance of thinking ahead and figuring out when exactly you will be eating to insure that your body gets the nutrients that it needs and you do not experience blood sugar crashes which will affect your energy and your body's fat burning ability.

The Week That Was

Well, well. Another week at All Canadian Fitness. Having more fun than anybody should have on a regular basis, we continue to change lives and figure out ways to push the limits of everyone we work (and play) with.

Eric Spearin, our football project, leaves for Montreal this weekend to play for Concordia University. This kid worked his a** off and will have a great training camp. Go for it.

Rob Braley, an old friend of All Canadian Fitness, returned from British Columbia as a National Champion! Rob led a local Burlington team to the Canadian Softball National Championship! 8 games in 4 days set a grueling pace, but the boys were up to it.

Rhona Waxman has returned from a trip to Scotland and has picked up where she left off before her holiday cracking everyone up every time she comes in for a workout. I really don't know how anyone can work so hard and laugh so much at the same time!

Speaking of hard work, Sheila (the Superhuman) and I finally completed the entire Navy Seal Challenge described below. Wow. Wow. Wow. Now THAT is a tough workout. In the process, however, Sheila ran her Personal Best Mile time of 6:49! Two weeks ago, she did it in 7:00 so a very nice improvement in a short period of time. Oh yeah, her shoe starting coming off 3/4 of the way into the mile. A little gentle "prodding" got her to continue and actually speed up with a blown tire. Not bad for a human.......

It has been so awesome getting back into running after having knee surgery last November that I have set a personal goal of running a mile in under 6 minutes. Back in my college football days, I had a personal best of 5:22, so anything in the 5:50- 5:59 range would be cool. I have no idea if it possible, but, I'll figure it out.

Besides Rob Braley, we have two other clients competing in National Championships this week. Kim Cullen and Kayl McCann are both going for the National title in "Dog Agility" Racing. Much tougher than it sounds, agility competitions include the task of controlling your dog at the same time that you tear around the obstacle course that your dog is running through. They have been training like crazy at The Studio and our fingers are crossed for both of them.

Think you're TOUGH?

Hey everybody, today is my first day back from holidays. You know you've got a great job when you cannot wait to get back to it! Entertaining a 3 and a 6 year old for 10 straight days might have something to do with it...... but nevertheless, it's good to be back. While I was away, Adam Higson (Trainer Number One) was in Tokyo, Japan fighting in a Shoot Boxing tournament. He totally CRUSHED his favoured opponent and spent the rest of the week riding in limousines like a Rock Star! Nobody deserves success more than Adam. He is a workhorse, a rock and an absolute professional. Adam worked, trained, dieted and never once complained. He was Greyhound lean and Steel Town mean. Good job buddy!



I was really excited to get back to Shelley Thorsen today, another workhorse. Shelley is almost half-way to her goal of losing 120lbs. and worked hard as always today.



I also had the pleasure of working with Cathy Baldwin for the first time today since Matteo Tino, her regular trainer, is in Europe travelling and training for 5 weeks. Wow! What a blast. This lady works hard and Matteo has obviously prepped her in a big way. She handled her first "fat liberation workout" today with some blood, sweat and tears, but, with a lot of laughs as well. The point of FATLib training is to work with high intensity for a brief time to deplete the body of stored sugar and then to engage in cardio work to then burn stored fat. Here is an example of that type of workout:



Leg Extensions supersetted with Squats 2 x 10-15 reps of each. After the second superset, you would go IMMEDIATELY back to the Leg Extensions where you would perform reps to failure. At that point, you would remove some weight and continue to failure again. Repeat 3 times in all. Ouch. It doesn't take long but is extremely effective at depleting stored glycogen (sugar) levels so that your body will burn fat more effectively during the endurance portion of the training.



Finally, I had a chance to work out with Sheila Wynne Fung (one of our Superhuman trainers). When any two trainers work out together with limited time, things tend to get...."interesting". Yesterday, I got an email from a fellow trainer in Chicago describing a Navy Seal Challenge workout that they do at his studio for "fun". Sheila is a little nuts, so she says to me, "Hey let's try the Challenge workout!" Anyways, the workout involves no equipment and is as follows:



Run a mile
Perform 300 Bodyweight Squats
Perform 200 Pushups
Perform 100 Pullups
Run a mile

??? Yikes.



Time the whole thing and see if you can get in under 30 minutes. Luckily, we did not have time for the running part and did "just" the exercises :). We broke things down into sets of 5 to 100! Ow. We did it, but, man it was tough. Sheila (the Superhuman) started with 100 Full Pushups from her toes!! At The Studio, "girl" pushups do not exist.



Next week, we will do it with the running. Think you're tough? Give it a shot.