Right now, fitness boot camp are hugely popular and are becoming the next fitness fad.  There are so many great things about a fitness boot camp.  First, it is so much less expensive than hiring a personal trainer to train you one on one.  A typical personal trainer will run you anywhere from $50 to $75 per hour.  Whereas a good fitness boot camp will run you anywhere from $150 to $300 per month.  So, if you train with a trainer lets say 10 sessions per month, you are looking around a $600 bill, versus a $250 bill.

Another great thing about fitness boot camps, is that you can go as much as you want.  You can go every single day or just once per week.  Fitness Boot Camps are a great way to go.  They also provide a venue where you can compete with other like minded fitness enthusiasts, establishing new friendships, being surrounded with motivation and support and people who will help keep you accountable to your health and fitness goals.  Plus, working out in a boot camp is so much more fun, that it goes by so much faster with greater motivation.

Now, if you choose the right fitness boot camp in your city, there are certain things you should expect to happen to your health and body.  And if these things are not happening, then you are going to a bad boot camp.

Here is what you should expect:

Lose Fat For Good:  The right fitness boot camp will have you shedding all your fat, for good.  Most programs have their clients losing tons of fat, but many of htem gain it all back within one year.  The right boot camp will also teach you how to eat and what you need to do to keep off the fat for good.

Tone Up:  The right boot camp will not only shed your fat, but it will also tone up your entire body, making you look tone and fit.  A healthy body should look athletic and tone, not just skinny.  So, there should be some type of weight resistance in the boot camp program.

More Energy:  With the right boot camp you should notice more and more energy week after week.  This is huge plus that any fitness program should do.

No matter what boot camp you join in your boot camp, this is what you should typically expect.  It should be fun, motivating, fit your schedule and most of all, it should work.  Have fun.

As I have trained all my life, I am not the typical 40 year old man.  There is both a chronological age and a health age.  Yes, chronologically, I am forty years old.  But, my health age is much younger than that due to taking care of my health, through consistent training and intelligent nutrition.  But, no matter when you started training, whether at 18 or at 45, you can always, slow down the aging process and get yourself into better shape.

Now, training after 40 will require us to get more recovery between muscle groups.  I recommend that you train only one muscle group per week.  And I recommend you train no more than three days in a row, training no more than five times per week.  This will allow your muscles to get ample recovery between training them again.  Also, by training only five times per week, having two complete rest days, will give your body plenty of rest to fully recover.  Make sure you are getting an average of 8 to 9 hours of quality sleep, where your REM sleep is high.  This is the deep sleep that your body requires to repair itself and release your own body’s growth hormone.

Now, you should also make sure you are not over training in your workouts.  Your workouts should be short and intense.  Forget volume training.  Doing volume training is a sure way for you to get in an overtrained state, thus hurting your muscle and fat loss gains.  Your workouts should last no longer than 45 minutes.  And for bigger muscle groups, such as legs, chest, shoulders and back, your sets should not exceed 16 sets.  And with smaller muscle groups, such as biceps and triceps, your sets should be around 10 sets each.  Remember, your arms and shoulders get a lot of work by working other body parts, so take it easy on the smaller muscle groups.  And don’t train abs more than twice per week.  Anymore than that is a complete waste of time.  You are not going to get a six pack stomach by doing tons of ab work daily.  You need to decrease your overall body fat levels in order to get that six pack stomach.

As we all get older, the importance of cardio becomes more apparent.  We all need to take care of our heart, the most important muscle of all.  I suggest doing about 20 minutes of cardio where your heart rate is about 70% to 80% of your maximum.  This will ensure your heart is worked adequately, increasing its stamina and decreasing your chances of heart disease.

I also suggest becoming more flexible.  By becoming more limber, you will reduce your chances of injury and at the same time reduce your stress and the tension in your body.  Going to a great yoga class will do wonders for your body and your peace of mind.  I love yoga.  Since starting yoga, I have become much more flexible, easy going, and relaxed.

Training after 40 doesn’t mean an end to being active and physically fit.  It means just making some small adjustments so we can keep moving forward without hurting ourselves, while we look great and have great health.

Becoming a competitive bodybuilder takes time to do so.  And for taller people it takes even longer.  For a shorter bodybuilder, they can fill out their frames in much shorter period of time.  For example, professional bodybuilder Shawn Ray, turned professional at the young age of twenty one, while Flex Wheeler turned professional at the age of twenty seven.  Why is this?  Shawn Ray turned pro as such a young age due to the fact of his height, which was five foot and six inches, whereas Flex was five foot and nine inches, where he did not turn pro until he was twenty seven years old.  All because he was much taller than Shawn Ray, causing him to take much longer to fill out his physique.

Becoming a competitive bodybuilder requires consistency, determination, motivation and tons of support from your peer group.  It’s a long and hardous road, that requires you to be very disciplined, both with training and with nutrition.  It also requires you to work hard and become more knowledgeable about your own body and how it reacts to different types of training and nutritional strategies.  One of the best things you can do to speed up your progress as a competitive bodybuilder is to retain the services of a great professional trainer.  This way, he or she will guide you through every step you need to go through, steering you away from pitfalls, getting you to maximize your physique as you climb through competitions.

There are three basic things you need to go right if you ever want to have success as a competitor:

Trainging:  You need to train with heavy weights so you can produce tons of muscular size with every body part.  And it takes years to put on some serious mass.  You will want to train at least five days per week, working your muscles from a variety of angels to get the maximum growth.  Plus, you need to include some quality training to condition your muscles for muscle maturity and added detail.

Nutrition:  You need to follow a specific nutrition program that is designed to put a lot of muscles onto your body with minimal body fat.  Now, you will have to keep your body fat levels between 12% and 16% body fat in order to get the best muscle gains.  If you body fat is too low, your body will go into a calorie starving mode, where you will eat off too much protein and or muscle.  And if your body fat is too high, your testosterone levels will drop, thus slowing down your muscle gains.

Rest:  And after all the training and nutrition, you will need to get plenty of rest.  You should at least be getting eight to nine hours of great sleep.  And if you can even get a nap in during the day to recharge that is even better.  Your body will repair and grow mostly when you are resting.  And that is the only time they grow.  You break down your muscles in the gym by lifting weights.  But, its the rest and eating that is helping your body repair itself and grow in response.  So, get your z’s.

If you can do these three things consistently and intelligently, then you can become a competitive bodybuilder.  It’s a hard life where you have to give up some things, but its well worth it if you have a sincere passion for bodbyuilding.

But, people in this country don’t fail to lose weight due to a lack of resources.  No way.  It’s much more complicated than that.  Yes, of course, most people don’t know what is the right method to get into shape from the wrong method.  But, the problem is much bigger than that.  It’s more of a human behavoiral issue than anything else.

You see, most people live their lives in mediocrity.  And for most people, that is not enough reason to change.  For the most part, when people hit rock bottom, they feel so much emotional and mental pain that they will do anything to not feel that way anymore.  But, as I said before, most people live in a state of mediocrity.  For example, a person needs to lose 30 lbs. in order to get a six pack stomach.  So, he starts to go on a weight loss program.  In the first few weeks he loses 12 lbs.  Then he starts to feel more comfortable then starts to stray on his diet, then he fluncuates back and forth.

Second, most people procrastinate, putting things off to avoid the pain of doing it now.  As an Orange County and Irvine Boot Camp owner, I see this all the time.  People will call to hire a personal trainer or to do a boot camp, but they won’t start until next month.  Or, sometimes they just leave a message and you can never get a hold of them on the phone.  These people feel just by calling a personal trainer that they are actually accomplishing something towards their goal.  That is not true.  They need to follow through all the way.  It doesn’t become real until they schedule it, such as your first personal training session scheduled for tomorrow at 6 pm.  That is real.

Third, most people have no form of accountability.  Every year in January, hundreds of thousands of Americans join gyms to get into shape.  But, over 90% of them quit within 8 weeks.  And why?  Because there is no form of accountability.  It makes no sense to go to the gym with your friends who have the same issues you do.  You need someone who will keep your best interest and keep you accountable to your health and fitness program.  A personal fitness trainer is a great way to do this.

And lastly, there is no motivation and support for these people.  Trying to get into mind-boggling shape is a very challenging thing to do, both physically and mentally.  And you are going to need alot of support.  Yet, most people just don’t have this and because of this they end up failing.  You need people there to help motivate and support you.  For example, if you are a woman who is trying to get into killer shape, you will need your husband to support you.  Your husband just can’t come home with pizza every night if you are trying to lose weight and get into shape.

If you can overcome these issues, you will have a much better chance of getting into great shape.  Anyone in the world can get into amazing shape if they are using the correct methods, are being held accountable to their goals, and are constantly supported and motivated.  That is the key to losing weight and getting into great shape.  And remember, this is a lifestyle change that you must embrace for the rest of your life.

As the owner of the leading Orange County Boot Camp, I have come across hundreds of people in Irvine and many other parts of Orange County, that have no clue on what it takes to lose pure fat.  When it comes to nutrition, people are totally lost.  And I can’t blame them.  With all the misleading information and a new fad diet coming out every other day, there is no wonder why people don’t know what to eat to lose fat and get into healthy condidtion.

I hate to burst your bubble.  But, if you really want to drop those unwanted pounds and get into amazing shape, there is nothing more important than what you are eating.  In fact, nutrition is about 80% of the formula to getting you fit and lean.  And for the majority of the population, what people eat is a behavoiral issue.  Many people eat to compensate for stress.  Many eat out of boredom.  Others eat because they are lonely and sad.  And some eat the wrong foods because of their lifestyle, and they become addicted to certain foods, such as foods that contain msg.  Whatever the reason is, all this can be corrected, where you or anyone else can start eating the right foods that will have you losing fat in a short period of time, safely.

Here are a few tips that will have you eating to lose fat:

Tip #1:  Eat Smaller Meals More Frequently

By eating more times per day, like five to six times per day, you are tricking your body’s metabolism to speed up.  You see, your body has a survival mechanism where if you are eating more times a day, your metabolic rate increases to compensate for the increased food.  Plus, by eating smaller meals you won’t have your fat storage hormone, insulin, skyrocketing, allowing you to gain fat.

Tip #2:  Eat Enough Protein

By eating protein, you do two things.  First, you will eat enough protein to help build more muscle.  And when you have more muscle, your metabolism increases, causing you to burn more and more fat.  And second, eating protein helps you feel full, so you won’t feel like over-eating.  Focus on eating high quality protiens, such as chicken breasts, fish, egg whites, whey protein, and lean meats.

Tip #3:  Avoid Processed Foods

Processed foods are foods that have been chemically altered from their original state.  You should be eating natural and raw foods, in their natural state.  If you are not sure what processed foods are, just think of the shelf life of certain foods.  If a food has a long shelf life, such as 6 months, the food is processed.  An example of processed foods would be potato chips, crackers, canned foods, and baked goods.

Tip #4:  Eat Tons of Fibrous Vegetables

This tip is key for you melting fat off your body.  By eating fibrous vegetables, you will clean out your colon and you will be eating foods that burn more calories than the food contains itself.  A great combination, particulary at the end of the day, is to eat only a lean protein and fibrous vegetables.  This will go a long way for you to burn tons of fat off your body.  Here are some great fibrous vegetables that I highly recommend:  spinach, romaine lettuce, peppers, kale, broccoli, and radish.  There are many more, but these are just a few that will help you put together a great nutrition program that will have you crushing fat in no time.

Follow these tips, but also have some balance.  It’s ok to eat a pizza or a burger once in a while.  The key here is to understand that eating healthy and living a fit and healthy life is a lifestyle.  And in order for you to sustain this type of life, you need balance.  So, if you are craving a burger really bad, go have it.  Just don’t do it every single day.  Good luck!