Well the Summer Fitness Slump has officially begun already. It gets earlier each year. As a Cherry Hill Personal Trainer for the past 20 years, I have already heard 4 clients say they were taking the Summer off. They are allegedly going to keep up with cardio and stretching. I hear this B.S. every June. Who are they kidding, they will come back
in September and say things got really busy and they haven\’t done anything for 2-3 months. I can set my clock by it.

Lets be real, Summer is a great time to eat out, have family BBQs, and skip workouts especially when its 100 degrees and with 100% humidity (It will 100 degress and 100% humidity in a few weeks).

So why do most people skip their workouts and pack on the pounds in the Summer (have you ever been to a gym in August during peak hours – its a ghost town). Most people rationalize to themselves – hey its nice out I will be more active outdoors. STOP deluding yourself. You are going to be even busier with kids home for the Summer, family vacations, trips to the beach, Summer BBQs, and the scorching temps that will make you want to curl up into a ball and not move.

Just doing cardio and stretching for 2-3 months over the Summer is the biggest waste of time if you are looking to lose weight and tone up for that bathing suit. And starving yourself all day to compensate for a few extra cocktails is another complete waste of time. Lets give you the benefit of the doubt and say you actually brave the heat and do cardio over the Summer. If you walk at a moderate pace for 30 minutes you might burn 150-200 calories. Its takes 3500 calories to burn 1 lb of fat. You do the math, it will take you over 3 weeks to lose 1 lb. How demotivating is all that hard work and no real results.

You must strength train to see real body transforming results. It is much faster at making you lean and tone compared to cardio. A strength routine 3x per week for 30 minutes can add about 4-6 lbs of fat blasting muscle ( 1 lb of muscle burns 60-75 calories a day). Cardio doesnt even come close.

Here is what happens to you if you stop strength training. After 7 days you will notice strength decreases. After 2-3 weeks you will lose muscle tone and definition. After 4-6 weeks it is like your body never did strength training before. You will lose all the metabolic enhancing benefits of strength training. It doesn\’t matter how long you did strength training either, whether you were a body builder for 10 years or a moderate exerciser all the benefits disappear. Your muscles have horrible short term memory.

No matter what Cardio will not change this. Doing cardio does absolutely nothing to maintain lean body mass. You burn calories while doing cardio and maybe a few hours after, but thats it. YOU HAVE TO STRENGTH TRAIN!!!!!

You can easily maintain all the benefits of strength training with just 1 workout per week. So if it comes down to it, do your strength workouts this Summer 1x per week minimum so when you start exercising again in the Fall you wont feel like you are starting all over again. A little bit goes a long way.

I am tired of hearing all of the excuses, do the work this Summer and get in the best shape of your life. I have so many great deals going on that you cant use cost as an excuse. Dont fall into the Summer Slump.

Have a great Summer and STRENGTH TRAIN at least once per week!

Fit-4-Life, Inc is Cherry Hill\’s Leading Personal Trainer Experts

Author Bio: http://www.personaltrainerincherryhill.com Kevin Hensel is Cherry Hill\’s Leading Fitness Expert. He has helped over 973 Cherry Hill, NJ residents achieve their health and fitness goals since 1996. You could be our next success story. Visit http://www.personaltrainerincherryhill.com/category/blog/

Category: Wellness, Fitness and Diet
Keywords: cherry hill personal trainer, cherry hill personal trainers