25 pound dumbbell

Hitting a plateau can suck the wind out of your motivational sails. It does not matter if you plateau in weight loss, weight lifting, distance running, cycling, or even just hitting the gym on a regular basis. When you don’t see benefits from your hard work, it can be rough staying motivated. Have no fear, though, as there are a few things you can do to get back on track

Change up your diet for a week
Eating healthy all the time is commendable, and highly suggested in these times of prepackaged food and fast food dinning. Yet, you still need to treat yourself to just one meal of pizza and ice cream. Note here, that said one meal, not one long week. Changing up even one meal a week will shock the body, give you a rest from leafy greens, and feed your cravings for something with a bit of fat and salt.

Switch up your routine
Changing up your exercise routine is another great way to keep the body on its toes. Yup, the body can adjust to your exercise regimen and anticipate a workout. If you run a lot, change it up and do some biking, rowing, or intense hiking. The same idea goes to you weight lifters. Instead of lifting at your highest potential, drop a few pounds of weight and go crazy on the reps. Try to change up your routine every two or three weeks to help keep that body guessing what is next.

Take a mini vacation
Sometimes the best thing you can do is to take some time off. Just as you need a break from the daily grind that is work, your body can benefit from a small vacation from exercising. This is a vacation from exercising; you should still be maintaining a healthy diet during this time. The vacation gives your body a chance to relax and heal up from your rigorous routines. Hitting your favorite exercise after this mini vacation can yield great results.

Sometimes you just need to maintain
There are times in life when you just need to maintain a bit of normalcy. If you have tried everything you can to get over the hump you are in and nothing is working, don’t get discouraged. Sometimes, you just need to maintain your current regimens, and that is not always a bad thing.

Plateaus suck no matter what. Yet, getting over these periods of little to no gains can be as simple as switching just one item in your routine. The next time you hit the wall, try changing just one item and seeing how much your body enjoys that little change.

iPhone Gym Buddy

The end of January is quickly approaching. For many this is the breaking point for all those New Year’s fitness resolutions. Gyms empty out, people slowly fall back on old habits, and another year of broken goals ticks by. You do not have to be yet another statistic in this collection. Heck, you can even use that iPhone to help you keep on the fitness path.

Even better, while you work at improving your health, you could win $10,000 from Apple. If you happen to download the 10 billionth app, Apple will give you ten grand. It is a win-win situation. Here are five apps to get you rolling:

RunKeeper Pro ($9.99):
Running is a great exercise that you can do all year, requires little gear, and is doable just about anywhere. RunKeeper Pro will use the amazing powers of GPS to track your runs. It also allows you to monitor activity, shares your workouts on Facebook and Twitter, and even gives you audio cues for sprinting, walking, or jogging. You’re already lugging the iPhone around for music, why not put it to use for your success?

Waterlogged (Free):
One of the most important things any diet needs is healthy liquids. It will take you less than 60 seconds to record your daily water intake. This is more than just another recording app though. You can setup reminders if you need that extra push to take a drink of water. You can even setup custom glass sizes for those obscure drink cups at the water fountain. Drinking water is vital to life; this will help you meet your watery goals.

Lose It! (Free):
Watching what you eat is integral to any fitness regimen. Lose It! is more than just another calorie counter though. You can set weight loss goals, establish a budget of calories for the day, share your progress online, and even bring in friends for a little extra motivation. A simple interface lets you enter in information quickly, thus allowing you to get on with your life instead of fighting some app.

Gym Buddy ($2.99):
Gym Buddy will not instruct you how to do a bench press, nor will it count the calories in your protein shake. What it will do is give you an easy, and more importantly, a fast way of entering in your rep and set info. Design lifting routines, enter in your info, and generate easy to read graphs plotting your progress throughout the year. Leave the notebook and pen at home, this app has way more versatility!

Calorie Tracker – Diet and Fitness Tracker ($2.99):
This just maybe the most comprehensive calorie tracker on the App Store to date. Not only can you setup goals and track your progress, but also this contains 625,000 food and fitness items. This makes it extremely easy to find that specialty imported fruit and see how many calories, carbs, and sugars you are about to consume. This app makes a great companion to apps like RunKeeper or iFitness!

This is the time of year where a lot of us let our fitness goals lapse. Between work parties, family gatherings and getting together with friends we may backslide a little and not only eat some non-healthy foods, but also put off a few trips to the gym, leaving us feeling lazy and unmotivated. If you’re in need of a little boost to get back to your goals then you should talk to Dr. Quin Skains, who can not only help devise a great workout routine, but also get your diet and nutrition back on track.

As a testament to the skills of Dr. Skains look no further than the recent feat by clients Phillip Mack Furlow and Stephen Earhart. The duo recently trained with Dr. Skains to prepare themselves for a wilderness backpacking trip, and it was his careful attention to their fitness and nutritional needs which allowed the men to cover the distance with ease and simply enjoy their time in nature.

“He pushed hard to increase my physical abilities and designed a diet where I was never hungry,” said Furlow. “The diet was tough. He encouraged me to eat right. When I did eat right I performed better and was not hungry. It all revolved around the type of foods I was eating and when I was eating ‘the good stuff’. Like any diet it wasn’t fun, yummy or easy, but it helped me achieve my goals.

“Through weight lifting we built muscle mass. After playing football and rugby during my younger days, I was under the false impression that weight lifting was not a good idea for my middle-aged body,” he added. “However, Dr. Skains taught me that muscle mass is important to maximize metabolism, strength, and performance.”

Whether you’re planning to tackle a mountain or simply want to get yourself into better habits and routines, working with Dr. Skains is a surefire way to reach your fitness goals faster and more effectively than you ever thought possible. Contact him today, and be on your way to a fitter and healthier you.

Time to work off those extra Thanksgiving pounds and keep the holiday flab away with this month’s gym specials! For December we’re offering 50 percent off the setup fee for auto draft memberships, so if you want to simplify your life with automatic payments of your fees it’s never been easier. Join today so you can start down the path to continued health and well-being.  Also, joining now gives you a one month head start on your New Years resolution.

If you’ve already got a gym membership then why not give one to a friend or loved one as a holiday gift? We have gift certificates for memberships, personal training sessions or even nutritional planning, so no matter what your fitness needs we’ve got it covered. Our gift certificates are perfect for that hard to shop for relative, as our variety of classes and programs are designed to appeal to folks of various fitness levels and offer workouts of varying intensity.

So come on by and sign yourself up at one of our lowest rates ever or pick up some gifts for friends and family for the holidays. We look forward to seeing you at the gym!

The Thanksgiving holiday is often the start of the downfall of healthy eating and keeping in shape for many of us. The foods served are often heavy, overly filling, and overly supplied, especially with desserts. On top of all that, the tryptophan found in turkey causes drowsiness, so the motivation to exercise at all that day quickly dwindles after the big meal. The constant viewing of football on TV doesn’t help matters either.

Everyone knows what they should do to avoid falling off the healthy and fit wagon: don’t eat so much and go exercise that day. However, considering that Thanksgiving is centered around eating, this is not a realistic tip. Here are our tips for healthy eating and keeping yourself on your fit regimen this Turkey Day, and you may be surprised at how they do allow for some indulgence.

Snack before the meal. The big key to eating a bit of everything you want is to eat smaller portions often. The best way to kick this off is with a small, light snack, such as chips and vegetable dip, before Thanksgiving dinner is served. If you start to fill your stomach here, you won’t feel the need to pile everything else on your plate.

Fill half of your plate with protein and carbs. Proteins include turkey and ham, and the carbs include potatoes, sweet potatoes, potato salad, macaroni salad, and pie crusts. Use vegetable dishes to fill in the rest of your plate. If you are still hungry after eating, try to get additional helpings of vegetables instead of turkey and potatoes.

Eat your vegetables first. By eating your salad and vegetables first, you will reduce the amount of room for the heftier foods and therefore cut down on the chance of overeating.

Visualize your stomach. Your stomach is roughly the size of two of your fists. If your food pile is larger than your fists, you’re trying to eat too much.

Stop eating at the first sign of being full. If you continue to eat past the point of initially feeling full, then you’re highly likely to stretch your stomach, thereby opening the gates to gain weight.

Give yourself a breather before dessert. Go watch half of a football game or help clean up the kitchen to spread out the time between dinner and dessert. Do your best to avoid taking that after-Thanksgiving nap. If you know you’re going to want to try every dessert, take small portions and remember to take into consideration how many carbs you ate at dinner. The half-of-your-plate rule includes your dessert carbs.

Drink plenty of water. Water will help keep you both hydrated (particularly important if you’re planning on drinking alcohol) and help your stomach get that full feeling sooner, which will additionally help force you to not overeat and eat smaller portions more often.

If you follow these Thanksgiving suggestions, you will find that you won’t feel as though you have blown your diet or have gained nearly as much weight.

Have a very happy Thanksgiving!

Our special for November 2010 is quite possibly one of the best specials for new members that we have ever had. Starting on November 1st, all new 12-month memberships will require NO enrollment fees.

All you have to do is sign a 12-month membership for $31.95 per month and pay our standard “due-at-signing” first and last month payments. But there are no extra fees. If you sign up with others, you will also receive additional discounts on your membership.

Remember, membership at the Brickhouse Gym includes all of our classes and childcare services for no extra fees, which is just part of the reason why we are the best gym in Denton. If you drop by, we’ll guarantee you’ll learn the rest.

We look forward to meeting you at the gym!

Why try to schedule a doctor’s appointment for your flu shot, when you can get one at your gym?

On Monday, October 18th, Aubrey Pharmacy will be giving flu shots at the Brickhouse Gym starting at 5:00 p.m. Just swing by after work and vaccinate your entire family. Everyone from 6 months old and up is eligible, and it’s only $25 per shot. (Cash and checks only, please!)

It’s a great deal at a convenient location, effectively giving you no excuse to not protect yourself from the flu this winter.

We hope to see you flu-free at the gym!

Mike at the Helm

Thanks to all of you, our loyal members, our Brickhouse family is constantly growing so we are always looking for better and more efficient ways to provide an extraordinary gym experience for each one of you. Our newest step towards better service includes a new, more advanced computer system, which also requires new photographs of all of our gym members.

If you’ve visited us in this past week, then you have most likely already been asked to take a new picture for our records. But if you haven’t, be aware that we are asking all members to take a new photo upon your first sign in. So if your picture means that much to you, bring a change of clothes to work out in after we take your picture.

Thanks so much for your patience as we ease into this new system!

There is no better way to bond as a family than by exercising together as a family. For the entire month of October, Brickhouse Gym would like to share the gift of getting in shape with your whole family. If you sign up for any electronic fund transfer (EFT) account, a second person can sign up for only $25, and all additional people can sign on for $20 each.

And the best news? Both new and current members are eligible for this special, so there is no better time to get your whole family involved than in October.

Don’t forget to keep checking in on Foursquare! We’ve had one solid mayor over the last month, and we know he isn’t the only Foursquare user at the gym. It’s the easiest way to snag a Brickhouse Gym shirt for half price.

We look forward to seeing you AND your family at the gym!

A certain article has been quite the hot topic as of late within the fitness community regarding core stability exercises being a waste of time. Professor Eyal Lederman, Director of the Center for Professional Development in Osteopathy and Manual Therapy in London, recently published a study claiming that working in core stability exercises into your workout routine is hardly beneficial and therefore unimportant. He even entitled his article, “The Myth of Core Stability.”

Kevin Neeld responded to this article, pointing out that Lederman focused on core stability exercises for helping with back pain and not for what it is really intended: overall fitness and optimal performance. Neeld particularly emphasizes the importance of core stability exercises for athletes.

So is core stability a myth? No.

As Lederman has shown, core stability exercises may not do anything to help relieve your back pain, but these simple exercises can definitely improve your workout routines and your physical performance.

Core stability refers to your abdominal, back, and lower chest regions that the body heavily relies on for pretty much everything you physically do. Lifting, stretching, and walking all rely on the core for support and strength. The theory behind core stability exercises suggests that by strengthening your core, you will improve your work on building up other muscles for strength and durability because your body won’t have to draw strength from the core as much if it is already strong. In turn, strong core stability improves your workouts and optimizes your physical performance.

While athletes really need strong, stable cores for their constant and intense physical activities, this doesn’t mean that they are the only ones who benefit from them. Everyone who wants to be physically fit needs to exercise their cores, no matter if they simply want to get in shape or train for a marathon.

Pilates is one method of core exercise, and the Brickhouse Gym offers specialty classes just for your core. But if you don’t want to attend special classes for core workouts, ask a trainer at the gym for exercises you can work into your routine. It only takes an extra 10-15 minutes, and the reward will be more than worth it.