Creatine was first discovered by researches in 1912. Willey Glover Denis and Otto Folin discovered that by ingesting creatine one could increase the amount of creatine within muscle. Even though creatine had been around since 1912 it was not until 1992 that creatine came into the public view. During the 1992 Barcelona Olympics several athletes who won gold medals were utilizing creatine. It was during this time that many athletes began to utilize creatine in order to improve there performance.

So does creatine actually work? Yes there is evidence that creatine increases athletic performance. What creatine does are supply muscles with energy and increases fat-free body mass. Many theorize that the gain from creatine is primarily from water-retention. However, many studies conclude that long term, increases in total body water is reported to be proportional to the weight gains. This means that the percentage of total body water is not significantly changed; therefore, most of gains during creatine use more than likely are muscle increase and not water-retention.

So as a personal trainer in Houston I recommend for clients who are seeking to increase muscularity and/or performance in high-intensity anaerobic activity to use creatine. This is primarily due to studies showing that creatine does improve athletic performance. However, athletes who are going to utilize creatine should first confirm that creatine is an allowed supplement within their sport.

As a personal trainer in Houston people always ask me if they need to have one gram of protein per pound of body weight. The answer is no, actually studies have shown that only 0.4-.06 grams of protein per pound of body weight is sufficient. Ingesting more protein will only result in your body storing it as flab. Of course you want to take in your protein with every meal throughout the day and if you are on a proper eating routine you are eating 5-6 times per day.

What is protein?

Protein is made up of amino acids. In other words amino acids are the building blocks of protein. In addition, there are two types of protein animal and plant. However, there are roughly 20 amino acids divided between essential and non-essential ones. Essential amino acids must be obtained from a food source.

How many amino acids do you need?

Your body needs all amino acids and depending on the amino acid composition, proteins are either “complete” or “incomplete.” Animal protein has the completer profile of amino acids where as vegetables are typically incomplete. Incomplete means that they are either missing amino acids or too few of them to maintain the body’s total needs.

So tonight enjoy some meat and below are a few good sources of protein.
Chicken Breast
Fish
Egg Whites

As a certified personal trainer in Houston I’m always asked how much of my low carbohydrate (carb) diet should consist of fat. The answer is 60-70% of your daily calories should come from fat. Carbs should make up less than 10% and in some cases, less than 5% of their daily calories.

The problem with carbohydrates is that they are readily converted into fat by insulin. When eating carbs one causes the body to produce more insulin. The problem with insulin is that it causes fat to be stored, and it also stimulates your brain to produce hunger signals bad combination!

By reducing intake of carbs you stop the cycle of the body producing insulin; furthermore, levels of glycogen rise while insulin levels fall. Glycogen is a hormone that causes body fat to be burned and cholesterol to be removed from deposits in the arteries.

In this post I want to discuss how to design the best cardio workout for you. The best cardio workout for a person is when the heart rate is elevated for at least thirty to forty five minutes at an intensity of sixty five percent to eighty percent of their maximum heart rate (MHR). In order, to calculate an “estimate” of your maximum heart rate simply subtract your age from 220 (i.e. 220-age= MHR). Once you calculated your MHR multiply times .065 to obtain 65% or your MHR.

For fat loss and cardiovascular improvement, do your cardio workout four to five times a week and each session should last for no lesser than thirty minutes and no more than one hour. Make sure when your doing your cardio, you are monitoring your heart rate!

You should not be out of breath during the cardio session. You need oxygen to burn of fat. Combine your cardio workout with weight training and you definitely can see the fat melt off!

Strength training is the best way to increase your metabolism. By increasing your metabolism you will burn fat and sustain weight loss. I still recommend cardio training but remember when it comes to burning fat, there is no substitute for strength training.

Here is an example that will show you how muscle burns calories. A pound of fat burns 5 calories per day. A pound of muscle burns 50 calories per day! By adding 5 pounds of great looking muscle you will increase the amount of calories you burn per day to 250! That is equivalent to doing 30 minutes of cardio training per day.

So for burning calories there is not substitute to strength training. Once again I still recommend cardio training but, never substitute cardio training for weight training.

Cliff Pape
CliffPT.com

Contact: Cliff Pape

Phone: 713-240-2037

You are to be congratulated for taking the first step to achieving your goal!  By contacting Cliff the Personal Trainer who gets models fit and athletes fit, you are sure to achieve your goal!  Cliff will consider your particular needs and goals and use his fourteen years of professional fitness training experience to craft a personalized plan that is guaranteed to keep you motivated and get you to your target.  The biggest requirement to getting fit is accountability and you can count on Cliff for that!

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Contact: Cliff Pape
Phone: 713-240-2037