Personal Training Blog with Douglasville Personal Trainer David Hansey

Oh, don’t get me wrong. I am not about the one body part and I never will be and guess what — science shows that arm size and strength and growth requires you to work more than just your arms.

Want to test my theory? Pick up a very good size dumbbell for you — like you could do 5-8 reps of bicep curls in in. Do those 5-8 curls with the arm you write with. Then do those 5-8 with your weaker arm. Do these in a mirror and watch the following parts of your body (or ideally have a friend watch too)

1 – Watch as you crunch your elbow into your body for leverage.
2 – Watch as you lean a bit
3 – Watch as you tighten your glutes even though in theory you think you are just working your arms.

See — Your whole body is part of the picture. And working your whole body is the best way to improve the strength and size of any part of that body including your “GUNS”

There are some foods for Thanksgiving that are healthy and if you prepare them properly will not make Thanksgiving a diet disaster.

Turkey — Great protein source. Stick to the white meat and avoid any skin and fat which is not only unhealthy but kinda gross if you think about it.

Cranberries — Great source of vitamin C.

Sweet Potatoes — Avoid butter, sugar and anything resembling a marshmallow and sweet potatoes are a good healthy choice with lots of beta carotene.

Pie MAYBE– Even pie if you think ahead can be on your list. Avoid double crusts and added sugars and stick to either apple or pumpkin that you make yourself. One great way to control the portion is to make mini pies in muffin tins.

Potatoes — Mashed potatoes can hide a lot of fat and butter and cream. If you cook good quality potatoes such as Yukon Gold and use a Potato Ricer and skim milk, you will find that you can eat a small portion of these without being a diet explosion.

Stick to the vegetables and protein and watch your portions and appetizers and Thanksgiving can be a great day full of wonderful people and food!! Happy Thanksgiving!!

Getting selenium from organic sources has been shown to help lower your risk of breast cancer. Some great healthy sources are tuna, portobello mushrooms and cottage cheese.

Studies have shown that not eating breakfast can increase your risk of obesity by up to 450%. How can that be?? Well if it were simply you eating less, it wouldn’t be. But people who skip breakfast often do so as a justification to eat more later. You will snack, you will overeat at your other meals and because you are so hungry you will make poor choices.

It may sound boring but it is good for dieters to preplan their meals. Less chance of something happening to screw up good intentions.

Eating breakfast starts your metabolic furnace and gives you energy throughout the day. It also gives you the willpower to walk away from the doughnut or muffin display at the office.

A great way to avoid getting a cold. Travel with some sanitizer. The light switches, door knobs, telephone and TV remote are rarely CLEANED in hotel rooms, usually they are just dusted. And since the cold virus can linger on surfaces for up to 24 hours, why not just clean those when you check in.

A study done at the University of Rochester found that people who spent at least 20 minutes outside felt up to 20% more physical and mental energy than those who stayed inside.

When was the last time you cleaned out your gym bag? Ever washed it?? Placing your gym bag on the floor of a gym no matter how clean the gym is transfers germs. And tossing your sweaty clothes into your gym bag puts all of the bacteria and germs for every place you ever went in the gym into your bag where it can grow and multiply.

Most gym bags do fine being washed in the washing machine and many can even go in the dryer so give it a try.

This seems especially true when people have an ankle or leg injury but balance work is one of the BEST ways to recover from an injury. It is also one of the main ways to get stronger. Why did you turn your ankle in the first place? A variety of reasons but I promise you that you will be turning it again if you skip the balance work.

It is simple and can be added to your workout and can even enhance other parts of your body like your abs because you are working in ways that challenge multiple parts of your body.

Ok so I have always told my clients to keep a food diary at least for the first week or anytime they get stuck. It not only keeps you honest but it also points out things you really might not have seen.

Most of our mistakes are really honest mistakes, like not realizing that coffee drink has 700 calories (which is at least 1/2 day for the average person trying to lose weight) or realizing that their gum is 40 calories or that they are having several servings of cereal etc.

So if you like to write it down, I have a free diary on my www.4fitbodies.com page that put the whole week on one page. if you are more into your gadgets — try Tap and track for the iphone. It is AMAZING and seems to have every food known to man and hundreds of restaurants. There is also Lose it for the iphone that is free on itunes.

However you choose to do it – KEEP THAT DIARY — it really is the roadmap to where you are. And like any map, you can’t know where to go until you see where you are at now

A study done at Tufts University found that athletes who did not drink enough fluids during their workouts reported feeling more angry and more depressed after than those who were properly hydrated.

Sounds simple enough to me — drink some water and quit being so crabby!!