Healthy Body Image at Seattle’s Orangetheory Fitness in Capitol Hill

The body image mindset

This is believing that your body was never meant to look like anyone but you. My body is my vessel and my food is my fuel. It is knowing that today you will never get back.

Focus on the core to get stronger everywhere else

Focus on the core to get stronger everywhere else

Coaching body image

How can you not feel proud of yourself after completing a HIIT workout at OTF… it is one of the best feelings. I enjoy the feeling of accomplishment which is accompanied by the process of physical recovery post-workout. If you consume some protein then, you will do good for the body.

Orangetheory Fitness vs. Orangetheory Weight Loss

I am sure OTF has the widest appeal of HIIT training currently in Seattle. That’s why you will see so many more of them coming up throughout Washington. I love being the Head Trainer at Capitol Hill OTF in Seattle.

Our workouts have the potential to boost bone density, promote healthy blood sugar, support muscle tone, reduce fat cell size, and make you feel great at any age. Fitness is a key element of longevity and anti-aging. Being part of a healthy community is proven to improve quality of life at any stage of life.

Open invitation

You are invited to experience what we have going on at OTF in Seattle – Capitol Hill.

Orangetheory Fitness Seattle Orangetheory Seattle

5 Insights from Holistic Health for FAT LOSS

Want to burn more fat?

The goal seems simple yet our bodies respond in curious ways. Lets look at body composition.

Runners, explosiveness/strength vs endurance/distance

Differences in body comp, maybe its okay to be heavier than runway model standard or ultra endurance runner (r)

Think about body composition for a moment. You may notice an individual who is exceptionally lean no matter what they are wearing. Their body composition would indicate low levels of body fat.

How do we burn more body fat?

Focus on the gut

I think fat gets way too much attention, probably because you can see it. We can’t kill the fat cells, but we can make them smaller. The fat cells must receive hormonal signals in order to begin the burn of energy from fat cells. In other words, it’s the fat cells themselves that burn the fat, yet it’s the internal system that must first produce the signal.

Once you have a certain amount of fat cells, they can only shrink in size -- never disappear.

Once you have a certain amount of fat cells, they can only shrink in size — never disappear.

To signal fat cells to burn fat, the most common way is to workout. High intensity exercise can be short and still burn a ton of fat. The HIIT workout (example: Orangetheory) will burn fat mostly due to the hormonal release post-workout. These are the signalers that tell the fat cells to use energy and therefore get smaller.

The gut is complicated

Take a moment to think about all of the organs in your torso. There is much life within my human digestive system, it’s like totally ecological. There are so many billions of non-human life inside my body, it’s a biotic fiesta in my stomach. I like to celebrate with my gut and with my friends.

TBT may'n, back at LP Athletics trying to have healthy gut micro-flora

TBT may’n, back at LP Athletics focusing on strength and having healthy gut micro-flora

Aside from the fact that the digestive system is the biggest key to human immunity, the gut is ground zero for so many metabolic processes. The nutrients we consume from food contain catalysts for physiological, biological, and hormonal elements that life would be impossible without it. Therefore pure fat loss is impossible without nutrients.

Nutrients are the most valuable

Don’t leave it to scientists to discover everything, but it’s pretty amazing the advances in nutrient science with the last few decades. It’s unlikely we’ll understand everything about nutrition, but we can go on these ideas:

  • Nutrients come in many forms, for example: 
    • vitamins, minerals, water
    • dietary fats, carbohydrates, proteins
    • antioxidants, phytonutrients, fiber
  • Doing it right

    Doing it right

    • enzymes, pre-biotics, pro-biotics
    • curcumin, gingerols, dietary nitrates
    • etc
  • The goal is to improve symbiosis within the gut and surrounding organ systems between human cells and colonies of bacteria
    • Lactobacillus acidophilus is a commonly mentioned pro-biotic in our guts
  • A calorie is probably still a calorie, but most of us don’t really appreciate the depth at which food impacts our metabolic lives  24/7 including how fast the cells age!
    • Anti-aging strategies always involve exercise and nutrition
  • You can’t beat real food and herbal sources
    • Fresh, green food provides many catalysts for fat loss, and also for systemic health
    • High quality herbal extracts have benefited human health for thousands of years
  • It’s less about what you don’t eat, than what you do eat
    • Even if you restrict calories, you may be restricting nutrients as well
    • A low calorie poor diet is still a poor diet — dieters may become nutrient deficient if their food is not nutrient-dense.
    • The nutrients contain catalysts — cellular processes – sending signals to fat cells
    • Give your body a reason to burn fat, for example: antioxidants

You always knew it was about the gut anyway

If you’ve ever had a gut feeling, you may have experienced a range of feelings, emotions, and experiences from within the gut; Some pleasant, some anxious, others perhaps made you feel compelled to action.

Listen to the gut. Focus on nutrients. Simplify your life by consuming fresh vegetables.

And if you have a sweet tooth like me, you could be eating berries almost every day of the year. Blueberries are loaded in antioxidants. Give your body a reason to burn fat. Nutrients. Antioxidants. A reason.

You'll be excited about this when your eating window is only 8 hours long

YEEEE!!

Good luck my readership. May you eat mindfully and enjoy your existence inside and out.

and Digestion Immunity Nutrition Orangetheory Fitness Seattle Orangetheory Seattle

How to leverage Orangetheory’s instant bio-feedback technology for Rapid Fat Loss

Heart rate technology

Hello fitness minded fellow. Let me say that advancements in cardiovascular research have led to a surge in demand for tech in fitness. Just look at how many people come to Orangetheory Fitness in Capitol Hill Seattle to workout.

Behind the scenes heart rate training at first ever Master Class in Seattle

Behind the scenes heart rate training at first ever Master Class in Seattle

Sprint towards fat loss

You should progress towards higher intensity throughout a healthy period in your exercise regimen. In general, exercise specialists measure intensity by heart rate thanks to the cardiovascular and muscular demands of high intensity training.

Go heavier with resistance

When you are aiming for fat loss, increasing the intensity of your workout by using heavier dumbbells will accelerate fat loss. As you progress in strength, even if it is five pounds at a time, the excess energy will be eliminated from your body and lean replaces fat.

Orangetheory is enjoyable for me, I workout here often in addition to teaching classes

Orangetheory is enjoyable for me, I workout here often in addition to teaching classes

If you are in Seattle,

Whether you have been coming to OTF Seattle for a while or are thinking about trying out the hottest workout in Seattle, come talk to me about your fitness plan. For fat loss, health, conditioning & well-being you can’t beat this.

We’re all looking forward to the opening of Orangetheory Fitness in Lower Queen Anne as well. So are our members.

Orangetheory Fitness Seattle Orangetheory Seattle Physical Fitness by Dre

What do you Eat before and After the Workout?

Brandon, Orangetheory group fitness coach, was sitting next to me

And then we asked. . .

Nutrition strategies revealed!

Nutrition strategies revealed!

Is it best to eat before or after the workout?

Lets just go over the perspectives for a moment.

Option 1: Exercise on mostly empty stomach before workout, with carb feeding within zero to sixty minutes of high intensity exercise

The idea is that you will burn significant body fat during the workout since, “there is nothing else in the system, so the fat burns off!”

Post-workout nutrition strategies such as this can support the preservation of lean muscle mass by feeding on dense carbohydrate sources immediately and within the hours of a workout. Thus burning more fat in a shorter time.

Option 2: Fuel the workout! Consume from a variety of food sources including carbohydrates before the workout

With the second option, the exerciser purposely consumes carbs 1-2 hours pre-workout with the goal of making fitness progression. By Powerrring through an intense training session (which itself can be addictive), the post-workout release of testosterone and many natural healthy hormones for both sexes activate Fat Burning potential.

A sandwich I once ate ate Marlene's in Tacoma before my workout at the nearby athletic club which I worked at

A sandwich I once ate at Marlene’s in Tacoma before my workout at the nearby athletic club which I worked at

Regular cycles of intense workouts will naturally promote healthy glucose management and is key in the activation of the hormone adiponectin — a powerful fat burning catalyst which fat cells themselves release!  This effect occurs more frequently and with better results by having the habit of eating nutrient dense foods and exercising vigorously for sixty minutes up to four times per week.

Eat post-workout in addition to pre-workout so that you may achieve full recovery sooner. Perhaps give somebody a massage or even yourself.

Everybody is different

It seems that Option 1 will burn fat more rapidly, but may hinder performance… so then it comes down to goals at this time in your training history.

Personally I do what I can to enjoy the workout and that means eating a rich energy source before my workout. Fresh vegetable juice (including some root) is my all-time favorite pre-workout. I also go for smoothies if I need something easy to digest.

Do something good for you

By reading this and considering nutrition choices you are on the right track. I hope this has made you think more about the benefits of timing nutrition. Every moment you take to be mind-ful about nutrition will take you greater places in health, longevity and of course fat loss.

Eat on people!

Nutrition, Immunity, and Digestion

High Intensity Interval Training is a HIIT for fat loss

Run faster to burn fat quicker

You want to burn fat more quickly, like in a faster way. Here’s a somewhat truism. Actual fat loss is leaps and bounds more important than just weight loss. Should you do what it takes to get that lean/healthy muscle tone?

I know, that's why I want to burn fat today!!

I know, that’s why I want to burn fat today!!

Fat loss is a byproduct of healthy nutrition and effective training

If you are doing this for health reasons, then fat loss should not necessarily be the primary goal in itself. The primary goal is the action and digestion of consuming our plant-strong diet with lean proteins and healthy omega-3s. In this case, fat loss is merely a byproduct of superior nutrition habits.

Methods for fat burning

Look at the picture and notice the differences in body composition between these two runners. Keep in mind that these are both extremes.

Runners, explosiveness/strength vs endurance/distance

explosive/strength vs endurance/distance

  • Even though the body fat % may be about equal, the female sprinter has more impressive form and physique
  • The sprinter appears to have leaner muscle for the obvious reason that there is in fact more lean muscle
  • Notice Hip:Waist ratio significant difference. Sprinter butts can be out of this world (not said for an Olympic marathoner)

How much does your time matter? The Sprinter trains her body for a FRACTION of the time that a marathoner. While the marathoner is out there hitting the cement and losing muscle for long hours, the sprinter has much shorter bouts of effort. High intensity rules the fitness world currently.

It should be making sense by now

It should be making sense by now

You just get way more bang for the buck by focusing on strength, power, speed, explosiveness, and conditioning to experience your fat loss effects.

Train your cardiovascular system with sprints

In this workout, my trainer was Kyle Anderson of Seattle, WA (Orangetheory Fitness Capitol Hill) and he motivated me through the challenging sprint intervals. Check out my heart rate report

A heart rate graph through challenging strength and conditioning workout

A heart rate graph through challenging strength and conditioning workout

The data on the heart rate graph shows that I did work within 84% or higher of my max heart rate through intervals. Training the cardiovascular system in this method also improves muscle tone due to the muscular and metabolic demands of sprinting.

Three steps to running faster

latissimus dorsi: One of the most powerful sprinting muscle. Learn the power of arm drive for sprinting success.

latissimus dorsi: One of the most powerful sprinting muscle. Utilize the power of elbow drive for sprinting success.

1. You should feel that you are propelling yourself forward during sprints. Too many people land on the ground and waste energy on the reactive force of landing. Instead of running on the ground, run over the ground.

 

2. Use the hips to run forward. The human gait (natural movement of body through space) expresses hip:waist ratio in important ways. Larger, more developed glutes and tapering to a lean waist will typically be strong indicator of fitness (and perhaps even fertility).

 

3. Drive your upper body muscles in sync with the hips. The latissimuss dorsi as a totally undervalued muscle when it comes to sprinting (and that hourglass shape). The more powerful a muscle contraction (arm drive) helps you produce force with the legs.

Go all out

At some point during your intervals, when you are all out generating force and power, you should attempt to go a little faster than the last workout you recovered from. By making progress, you will get results faster. That is the nature of fitness — we must choose our own path. Sometimes fast, sometimes slow. Progression should be the number 1 consistency in our training.

fastrunner

Keep working at it. Sometimes you will need more rest before you can go faster… and other times you just need to go faster.

 

Orangetheory Seattle Sports & Athletics