Have you been, or are you, struggling to make gains in your strength and conditioning program? I have been working with people for nearly 10 years on achieving their personal goals- and i understand that there are many potential roadblocks that can limit you in achieving the body, health, and vitality that you want. Here are my simple and highly effective tips to get the body you want and increase your vitality and wellbeing.

Tip#1: Program Design

Your exercise program needs to match your goals. If your goal is to lose 10lbs, for example, then your program needs to match this with the appropriate scheme of reps, sets, tempos, rest time, exercise time, etc. A fat-lose program will be vastly different then a program to build muscle. Another example of proper program designing is getting someone to build strength and not grow (hypertrophy) muscle. This is extremely important when your dealing with athletes or clients that cannot or do not want to gain weight by packing on muscle-but need to gain strength. Proper program design poses more challenges when someone is an experienced exerciser or athlete and needs to break a plateau. A plateau is when you stop making progress and overcoming this requires a mixture of science and commitment. Having the correct and most effective plan of action in any exercise program will cut down on frustration and insure that your goals will be achieved.

TIP#2: Healthy Digestive System

The only way you will be able to breakdown foods and assimilate nutrients from your foods is if your GI tract is healthy and functioning strongly. A Healthy digestive system is vital to changing your body composition. Lack of nutrient absorption placates nutrient deficiencies that lead into weight gain, muscle wasting, poor vitality, and stressed immune function. Digestive issues can occur at any age; people 50 years of age and greater have a substantially greater risk do to the nature of aging and immune system strength. Rehabbing a dysfunctional digestive system can be involved…the good news is is that most everyone with digestive issues can completely rehab it back to healthy at any age. Stress is the biggest offender to the GI tract, and the one thing that can be completely self managed. If you feel your having a difficult time digesting your food, remember to slow down and make meal time a time where you do nothing else other then relax with yourself or others and simply eat and enjoy.

TIP#3: Eat High Quality Foods and Eat for Your Metabolic Type

You are literally what we eat. What you put in your mouth will end up becoming you- so, the building materials that you use will dictate how well you will grow and change. Beyond that is what types and quantities of building materials, i.e. foods, supplements will be needed to allow you to achieve your goals. We are all very unique metabolically; metabolisms are pre-engineered; specific foods create specific hormone responses, so because of this, we all follow a metabolic blueprint that is unique to us that has been passed down by our ancestry. An aboriginal native american living inland vs an aboriginal native american living coastal would have a completely different diet based on their food availability in that environment. The inland natives would prefer land animals- like Bison- compared to seafoods from their coastal counterparts. This type of food preference shows today in what people naturally gravitate towards (excluding processed foods since those are chemically manipulated to create addiction and cravings). Understanding what foods your body prefers can be tricky since most everyones bloodline is mixed. One way to do this on your own is to simply journal using a food- rotation diet. Pick one type of protein and either an above or below ground veggie and fruit (if you eat fruit) for that day. Eat only that type of protein for the day and then switch proteins the next day. Write down how you feel energetically, emotionally, and any other symptoms you may feel with that particular meat, veggie, and fruit for that day. You will start to see a pattern, and then you will be able to easily eliminate food sources that do not agree with you. This is also a great way to find out potentially food intolerances you may have. Different goals require different nutrients and amounts of nutrients. Building muscle vs losing body fat would mean needing two different nutritional game plans. Start with the basics of eating the highest quality foods that yield the most available nutrients. Get to know your body better by practicing a food rotation diet for 7 days. You will be amazed at what you discover and how much better and more energetic you feel.

Martin Alonzo is a Certified Nutritionist, CHEK Practitioner, strength and conditioning and corrective exercise specialist. He owns a private personal training business in Kensington and can be reached @ 619-284-2510, or email: martin@performcenter.com