In order to get in the best shape of your life you need the best tools possible. You need to know what exercises to do and when and how. You need to have a structured plan of attack on how you will reach your goals and what you are going to do to get there.
One of the biggest problems you will face when trying to get into shape is answering your question on what you should do? Below I created a plan for you to do to help start your fitness program off on the right track.
I want you to do each exercise for 2-3 sets and do 10-15 reps in each set to get your muscles stimulated. Choose a weight that you can do that is challenging while simultaneously making sure you are doing and keeping good form.
After you finish each weight training workout I want you to do anywhere from 10-15 minutes of cardio to start and then work your way up to 30 minutes. If you are looking into taking your fitness more seriously then this is a good plan for you.
I want you to forward this program to a friend that you think can benefit from getting some exercise advice. One of the best ways to get in shape is to get a workout partner. Watch this video I did on that subject for you http://youtu.be/p59_870-n38
Workout 1- Chest and Triceps
Bench Press
Push Up
Incline Chest Press
Tricep Pushdown
Dips
Workout 2- Back and Biceps
Seated Row
Lat Pulldown
Rear Delt Fly
EZ Curl Bar Bicep Curl
Preacher Curl
Workout 3- Legs
Squats
Walking Lunges
Leg Press
Calf Raise
Hamstring Curl
Workout 4- Shoulders
Military Press
Arnold Press
Upright Row
Lateral Raise
Front Raise
Workout 5 -Abs
Reverse Crunch
Roman Chair Leg Lifts
Exercise Ball Crunch
Plank
Bicycle Abs
Cardio
So you may be thinking what you should be doing for cardio since cardio is supposed to be where you lose weight. Well here is a video http://youtu.be/DIO5jiCQ7FU you can watch on some fat loss strategies you can use.
If you are healthy enough and cleared by a doctor, I strongly recommend you use the strategy that I made a video about above and use the incline treadmill to get you the results you deserve.
Below are a few links of how it looks when you use the incline treadmill strategy
Forward Walk On Incline Treadmill http://youtu.be/2WvHoYbD5BQ
Backward Walk on Incline Treadmill http://youtu.be/2N6YQkDKlik
Side Shuffle on Incline Treadmill http://youtu.be/osZuZ8Lr9aQ
Now if you feel like you are too out of shape or embarrassed to go into the gym here is a video that I created to help you get a little more confidence http://youtu.be/Cz_BuALa7x4
The key thing that you must understand and be aware of is you just have to begin. Even if you have very little confidence use my blog posts and updates to help give you confidence. Nothing great will happen to you unless you just get started.
I don’t care if you just start with 1 exercise and you do it for 5 minutes. That is better for you than doing nothing at all. Find yourself a friend to help you out and support you mentally, which is what you will need in order to get to the fitness levels that you want.
You should first work on getting started and then selling yourself that this will be a lifestyle change instead of a quick fix. Be patient with yourself and work hard on staying consistent with making going to the gym your routine.
Nutrition
Now the next thing you may be thinking is what you should do about nutrition. You may also want some tips on how to eat healthy without spending a ton of money. Below are some tips that my friend Tamara Watt (who is a specialist in helping those lose weight with nutrition) has created.
Times can be challenging, and for some people, spending money on organic and specialty food items, is causing unnecessary stress on their Family Budgets. But, these people also don’t want to eat potato chips and hot dogs for dinner, and are looking for solutions to eat better without breaking the bank.
Here are our Top 9 Ways to Eat Healthy on a Budget and ensure your body stays healthy and fit!
1. Make your grocery list based off recipes/meals you plan to eat for the week.
Decide what you’re going to make for the week and then buy for those recipes or meals.
This is not only time-efficient, but prevents you from buying things you MIGHT make, but don’t get around to, and then end up throwing away.
Also, don’t hesitate to buy something that’s on sale for a very low price and modify your plan for the week so you can save some dough. You’ll eat well, and spend less while being resourceful!
2. Canned Fish and Beans = High Protein and Fiber
From Tuna to Salmon, to Black Beans to Kidney Beans, canned fish and beans can be one of your easiest and most inexpensive ways to get healthy omega-3 rich protein (the fish) and cholesterol-lowering fiber (the beans).
One can of light tuna (the least expensive kind and lowest mercury kind) is only 79 cents, while a can of black beans can be found for just $1 (containing at least 2 servings)!
Yes, both contain sodium which can be problematic for some people, but you can easily rinse off some of the salt when you open them using a strainer. If you mix them both together and top them with a touch of mustard or chopped tomatoes (also not too expensive when bought fresh), you’ve got yourself a great meal!
3. Frozen Veggies are Healthy!
Many people fret that fresh veggies are not affordable, and they don’t last long enough to make them worthwhile.
The solution: Buy frozen!
Avoid those microwave bags of veggies though (questionable safety…) and instead, purchase the less expensive ones that you cook on the stove or in a microwave-safe dish (not plastic!)
.
Frozen veggies are very healthy, as they are usually sodium-free and are sometimes fresher than fresh produce because they are frozen right at harvest (instead of sitting for days in the store or your home losing nutrients).
You can cook them anytime and not worry about them spoiling before you can eat them and being a waste of money.
4. Look for Produce or Other Grocery Items with a “Close to Expiry” Discount
When you do want to purchase fresh vegetables or fruits, you can sometimes find a great deal if they are close to being thrown out (but are still good; like brown bananas).
For example, if you are a spinach lover, you can find containers of organic spinach with a $2 discount because they are close to their due date. You may have to toss a few slimy leaves, but the rest will be gone before it’s a waste of your money.
There are great deals on other grocery items like low-sodium organic canned soups and healthy fruit and nut bars that you may not be able to afford otherwise, but will still taste great! Look for tables of reduced-priced items the next time you’re out shopping, and you may be surprised!
5. Buy Fruits and Vegetables in Season
purchasing fresh berries in the winter is just silly.
Not only will you spend an arm and a leg to get them, you won’t be getting the freshest options because they were shipped to you from hundreds (or thousands) of miles away.
Instead, look for produce in season, like apples and squash in the fall, or berries in the SUMMER. Not only will you pay less, but it will taste better too!
In the winter, when most produce is not in season, choose frozen, untainted fruits and vegetables (no butter, sugar, etc.) for the best options.
6. Avoid Pre-Cut Items, like cut Apples or Pre-cut Green Beans
yes, these items may be convenient, but they’ll cost you at least double the unprepared versions.
It’s not that hard to cut your own apples, or slice your own squash, and you avoid any preservatives that are added to these vegetables and fruits to prevent browning.
7. Use the Shelf Stickers that List the Price of the Item per Weight
it’s amazing how many people don’t realize that many stores list the price of an item per weight so you can accurately compare between different brands or different sizes of the same product.
For example, a 16 oz. container of rolled oats from one company is $0.17 per oz. and $2.69. But, a 42 oz. container of oats from another company is only $0.11 per oz. and $3.79.
So, even though you may pay more for the large canister, you get more food for your money! Use these labels at the store to help you choose the best option.
8. Visit Discount Grocery Stores for the Best Deals
There are many discount stores and bulk stores that give you the best deals for your buck. These stores sometimes require a membership, but now some do not. They sell the products at a lower price because they avoid the fancy store decorations, the overpaid dietitians giving nutrition advice, and ask you to bag your own groceries (not really a big issue).
In some cases you can save up to $20 for the same cart of groceries as a higher end grocery store! Some examples of these stores are Sam’s Clubs, BJs, Costco, and ALDI – look for them next time you head out shopping.
9. Finally - Get a Tasty Whey Protein Powder
many people think supplements are too expensive if your wallet is tight, but think about this:
One serving of High Quality Protein Powder – something that keeps you satisfied and actually improves your health – only costs about $2 to $3 each!
That’s at least 25 grams of complete protein for only $2.50 that supplies you with all the essential amino acids for proper muscle recovery and tummy-filling protein to help you stay full for hours!
Compare this to a breast of chicken which will cost you at least 2-3 dollars for the same amount of protein and has to be cooked, seasoned, and properly stored. Also, if you purchase chicken at a restaurant, you’re looking at spending at least $4 (Unless you go to McDonalds and also worry about the health consequences).
I want you to share and forward this message with your friends via email, your social networks, text message, and any other way that you communicate with your friends so they too can have this program.
This is a program that I designed for you as a personal trainer which is designed to help you to start building the body and lifestyle that you want TODAY.
Thank you for reading my blog and enjoy your workout :)

Choose one of the warm up routines to do before your workout. Warming up is too important to skip out on because it helps you workout harder and that means you will get more results. What is your favorite warm up?
Warm up routines
Warm up 1
60 seconds jumping jacks
60 second walking lunge
60 second push up (can be on knees)
60 second body weight squat
5 minute jog
Warm up 2
Stationary bike 5 minutes
60 second side shuffles
60 second step ups
60 second burpees
60 second arm circles
60 second plank
Warm up 3
Elliptical 5 minutes
60 seconds ab twist
60 seconds skip
60 seconds side step ups
60 seconds stationary lunge
60 seconds split squat jumps
Warm up 4
6 minutes Incline treadmill walk (5-10%)
60 seconds Incline treadmill (5-10 %)side shuffle each side
60 seconds Incline treadmill (5-10%) lunge
60 seconds Incline treadmill (5-10%) Backwards walk
A Short Story about Weight Loss and Never Giving Up

There was a client that had lost complete hope in herself. She could not stand to look at herself in the mirror. Thoughts about what she wanted to look like and how “perfect” everyone else was made her fall deeper into her mental prison.
She was completely hopeless and depressed. She daydreamed about all of the amazing things that would change in her life if she could only lose the weight. She simply could not believe that she had allowed herself to get to this level.
Going shopping for clothes was an embarrassment. Dating life? Forget about it. She simply did not have the energy or pride to even present herself out there in the world.
One day she decided she needed a change. She was tired of her life and where it was going. She thought to herself “if I keep this up where will I be 10 years from now?”
The answer to that question was a scary thought. It was not where she wanted to be, so she decided to get a gym membership.
Getting the gym membership was one of the most intimidating and humiliating things that she had to go through. All of her self doubt and fears were going to be out there in the open where people could judge her every move and even worse, her body.
She almost thought of cancelling her membership and quitting. She did not know what to expect at the gym but she weighed her options and decided that she was going to do whatever it took to change her life.
Day in and day out she started off with the regular routine of wanting to lose her lower belly fat, tone up her arms, get rid of her back fat, and lean up her inner and outer thighs.
She was lost though. Working out was something that she had never done before.
As the weeks passed she saw very little results and became very discouraged. She thought “what’s the point?”.
After she gave in to some self pity, she remained brave and kept going despite her insecurities and frustration. She made a commitment and was determined to change her life.
After a couple of months she decided to be pro active and started reading fitness blogs and magazines. She wanted to educate herself on how to tackle her obstacles and reach her goals.
She immediately started to apply the tips that she was learning and slowly but surely got comfortable with the new techniques.
She became more educated on how her body was and what she could do to help change it.
Her attitude changed immensely. She now felt like she had hope.
Results started to come and the scale was getting lower and lower each week.
After months of training she finally hit her goal weight. Needless to say, she changed her life forever. She owes it all to not giving up on her dream and most importantly on herself.
And guess what? She found herself a boyfriend.
Never give up on yourself.
I just wanted to say thank all of you guys for showing me love. I hope these posts are helping improve your lives. I am going to keep giving you guys helpful and useful tips. I want to help more people on a bigger scale. Invite all of your tumblr friends to follow me so they can add to our community! :)

I had a client that when she was growing up she was really close to her family and every time she accomplished something that her family was proud of, the family would go out to eat to celebrate. This made her feel really good and connected with her family and made her feel loved. This was an event that hit a core emotion that us humans have, which is to feel love from people that we care about immensely.
Those were the times that she valued and cherished the most, to not only feel the endorphin rush of accomplishing a goal but most importantly the acceptance of her family. Nothing could replace this feeling of importance and in those moments that’s where the food association with love was created.
Now with that female client as she grew older and started a family she became extremely busy tending her kids and taking care of the household chores and her husband. She had become a very loving and caring mom but always putting the family and everyone else first. She forgot to take care of herself and she started to gain weight and body fat.
While she loved her family and got great fulfillment by being a great mother, when the kids were asleep and her husband off at work, she would feel lonely and she needed something to fill that void. Well if no one was near her to give her the personal interaction to fulfill those needs she naturally turned to food to comfort her because it was easy and available.
As the food comforted her and she started to gain some weight she decided that she wanted to do something for herself. So she purchased a gym membership and a personal trainer and went faithfully because she was a committed individual but she noticed that for some reason she was just not getting the results that she wanted. We analyzed her workouts and she was training the right way. We analyzed her cardio workouts and she was performing those correctly as well. She was doing everything right and we were dumbfounded.
Finally when we analyzed her nutrition, she was struggling to eat consistently healthy and stick to a nutrition plan, she just could not stick to the nutrition plan for the life of her. She could not figure out why she couldn’t she just thought she lacked will power and it started to affect her self-esteem and self-worth. She was extremely frustrated and felt hopeless.
It was not until we discovered together that the real reason why she could not stick to a nutrition plan was that she lacked “will power” but it was that anytime she would feel the normal human emotion of being lonely she would use food as a way to fulfill that need.
That was a “aha” moment because we knew that if we could satisfy that need in more creative ways outside of eating, then we would be able to successfully create and stick to our nutrition plan. So instead of mentally beating her up and making her diet more strict we took an outside the box approach and came up with some different solutions.
To fulfill that need of being connected and loved we looked at some other options such as developing a deeper relationship with her husband on an emotional level. Letting him know he was not failing as a husband but that there were specific things that she needed from him in order to help her improve her life.
Also we came up with the idea of having a girl’s night out where she developed deeper and more meaningful relationships with her friends. We budgeted some time out of the week to have that “friend time” to allow her to feel those emotions of being connected and loved in other avenues as well.
Needless to say her life is more fulfilling and balanced as well as she is able to stick to her nutrition plan and reach all of her fitness goals.
The purpose of sharing this story with you is to challenge you to think outside of the box and not think that it is your will power that is lacking on why you are not reaching your goals but it is a deeper issue at hand that usually has to do with emotions.
Write me a direct message or email greg@fiture.co on your feedback please :)
Another example of a why is coming from a family who was obese and saw the hurt and bad health that they experienced and how it negatively affected certain aspects of their lives. They decided that they wanted to do something about it and not let the trend keep going and so they want to be a good role model to their kids and to their other family members who are going through the same struggle.
I had a female client who came in and had obviously lost hope in her life and herself. Her husband had filed for a divorce and she was going to become a single mother of a teenage daughter and was over one hundred pounds overweight. She felt helpless and came to me because she needed help and wanted control of her life again. She wanted to buy training and before she bought she told me she could not afford it and left. I felt really bad because I could see the pain in this lady’s face and I wanted to desperately help her out in getting herself back.
The next day she came in and told me that she had lied to me and that she could afford it but that she was scared to commit because she was afraid to fail. Wow what an emotional moment for both me and her as she had let everything that she had kept bottle inside. She started to cry and agreed to start personal training because she did not know what else to do and that she thought long and hard about what I had told her the day before of taking care of herself and that she deserved it and that I believed in her.
I told her that I would do whatever it took to help her and that I would bring her on our team and that our team would help her through this hard time and that we really were in this to change people’s lives but most importantly her life.
We discovered her why was that she wanted to prove to herself that she could accomplish this goal of getting back into shape and rediscovering herself. She not only wanted it for herself but for her daughter. She was ashamed of the role model that she had become and wanted to change that because she did not want to see her daughter follow the same footsteps.
We worked out together and I helped her with any questions that she had. I offered an ear to her to listen to her problems so she could vent and start to heal. I gave her encouragement every day to believe in herself. I helped her to get back into hobbies that she was really into in her earlier days and I assigned her a trainer who was in the business for the right reasons and helped encourage her every single day to be the best that she could be.
Eventually she succeeded and ended up reaching her goals and that is a story of why discovering your “why” and having a positive support group behind you can take you to levels you never thought were possible. It is the most fulfilling thing as a fitness professional to see changes like this in people.
Greg Marshall
Do you need motivation for today? Watch my video above and reblog this to the tumblr community to motivate them LET’S GO :)
In this video I explain the difference in aerobic and anaerobic activity and how to use them effectively. I want you guys to use both in your fitness programs and do not be afraid to try new things. What are your questions?
In this video I explain aerobic exercise often called “cardio” and tell you what it is and what it is not. Be sure to use aerobic exercise to help burn extra body fat and boost your metabolism but the key to using this tool is understanding what it is so I educate you above.
Stress makes a big difference in how your body reacts to exercise and the results that you get. Make sure that you are managing your stress and having fun on your fitness journey and do not take things too seriously. Watch the video above to get some more tips on how to manage stress better to get more fit.
If you are working out too much or too hard and not resting it is possible that you are overtraining and you will not get the results that you want. Have any of you guys ever thought you were overtraining or have overtrained and have a story to share?
How to use periodization in your workouts and why you should not follow the same workout program for a 12 month period. You should be breaking your workout programs up into cycles to ensure that you are getting the results that you want and avoiding overtraining.