Fitness Together - Silver Spring

In Between Workouts: Smart Nutrition and A Few More Steps

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 12:56:00 -0500

Count every step towards your goal by wearing a pedometer. This is a great way to keep track of exactly how many steps you take including home and at work. By simply walking 2,500 steps (about one mile) you can burn 100-125 calories more calories and lose an extra pound per week. But don't sacrifice nutrition for weight loss either. Knowing when and what to eat is just as important as exercise and calorie counting.

Always eat a healthy balanced breakfast everyday. Your first meal of the day should include protein, a healthy carb, and a small amount of fat. An example of a good breakfast would be an egg-white omelet, piece of whole wheat toast, and fresh berries.

Healthy snacks are essential to fueling your body and your mind. A mid-afternoon snack like reduced fat peanut butter on whole grain crackers, low fat string cheese with an apple, or some cottage cheese and pineapple will keep you fueled and ready for an after work walk or workout.

Banish yourself from the kitchen late at night. All the extra calories you eat after around 8 pm you end up wearing into the next morning. To avoid this eat a good dinner with lean protein, veggies, and fruit for dessert.

Eliminate all processed foods- most importantly processed sugars, which are carbs that have been stripped of their nutrients. Eat fresh fruits and vegetables, lean fresh meats, and minimally processed dairy products to ensure you get all the nutrition and none of the ingredients that have been proven to increase your cravings for empty calories.

Former Engineer Turned Fitness Trainer Embarks on Charity Walk for Diabetes

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Health nuts and gym rats can be quite annoying—critiquing everything you eat, flashing their firm physiques at every opportunity, devouring food you wouldn’t touch even if you were starving—the nerve of them. But Kenneth Clarke isn’t like that. The physical trainer doesn’t want you to envy, he simply wants you to enjoy and live life. And that’s why Clarke’s Fitness Together studio, the largest personal training franchise in the nation, will, on Oct. 23, be raising money for a cure for diabetes.

Clarke’s studio, based in Silver Spring, Md., was recently named the official health and fitness sponsor for Washington, D.C.’s upcoming "Step Out: Walk to Fight Diabetes," an event organized by the American Diabetes Association (ADA). The charity trek will feature a 2-mile walk around Nationals Park and a 5-mile hike through nearby Eastern Market and Capitol Hill. For the public, it’ll be a chance to help give back and raise money for a good cause, but for Clarke, it’ll be a chance to continue a personal vendetta.

Clarke’s mother fought obesity for years, a battle he helped her fight off and on. But 12 years ago she had a stroke and developed diabetes as a result of her condition. With a family history of the disease, Clarke was motivated to partner with a few other colleagues in the area to lend a hand. Now, he’s walking in search of a cure.

“We were looking for a cause to partner with and to help raise money and hopefully find a cure for, and diabetes was kind of the one medical condition that we found that was common among our clientele,” Clarke said. “Black, White, young, old, [it] didn’t matter. We all had a percentage of our clientele who had diabetes because of being overweight, family history or whatever else. We’ve been working to raise money. So far, we’ve raised almost $12,000 and we’re looking to raise $15,000 by [Oct. 23].”

Coming from an engineering background, Clarke wasn’t predestined to be a fitness guru. He was always active in sports and fitness, but he spent 15 years doing information technology work for the government and private companies before settling in on his current occupation. After assisting a few friends and family members with their weight and diet to some success, Clarke decided to make a career out of it and took over his current facility in 2006. The former engineer has been changing pants sizes and lifestyles ever since.

“What we do is we focus on three areas: weight resistance training, cardiovascular conditioning and nutrition,” Clarke says. “We work one-on-one with folks because we can actually develop relationships with our clients and they take our advice and respect our advice. When they follow our suggestions, they get results. There’s a lot of diets that promise you results in 10 days, 15 days, 21 days, whatever. We’re actually trying to change lifestyles.”

And save lives in the process.

To find out how you can support Fitness Together's efforts in "Step Out:Walk to Fight Diabetes," please visit www.ftcustomfitness.com

Let's Get Fit - Local woman, 40, trains as body-builder.

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0500

By Arielle Retting
Thursday, July 08, 2010

After 17 years of climbing the corporate ladder, 30-year-old Sherry Nicely noticed she was getting winded — both metaphorically and physically.

"I was just never really satisfied or fulfilled, and sitting behind a desk doing accounting I realized that my health wasn’t as good as it could be," Nicely said. "You know, that sick and tired of being sick and tired kind of feeling? I thought I was way too young to feel that way."

So Nicely did what most people do: she joined a gym.

"I couldn’t wait to come home from a stressful day at work and go to the gym to work out my frustration," Nicely said.
But a gym membership didn’t quench her craving for fitness. She immediately got a personal trainer for a few sessions to take her fitness to the next level.

"It was my passion and my hobby," Nicely said. "I constantly had my head buried in a fitness or nutrition book or magazine."

While visiting her family on vacation four years ago, her mother found an article about becoming a personal trainer in one of those very fitness magazines. She asked her daughter, "Why don’t you do this?"

For the first time Nicely began thinking about turning her passion into a career. "It never occurred to me to do what I love for a living," Nicely said.

After eight months of hard thinking and tough training, she became a certified personal trainer, quit corporate America and took a job as a personal trainer at Fitness Together in Alexandria. She felt right at home at the Fitness Together franchise, saying, "I knew that was the right place for me."

After a few months working in Alexandria, Nicely took the plunge and opened a franchise in Fairfax. She believed the private, one-on-one personal training was something she could offer to Fairfax-suburban neighborhoods that no other franchise could.

"I truly feel that we put the personal back in personal training," Nicely said. "I could actually see changes and positive results I was making in my clients’ lives. Two of my clients have changed so much that they became personal trainers themselves."

Fast forward a year and the Fitness Together franchise in Fairfax was a success. Everything finally fell into place, and her world began to calm down. That is, until friend and employee Fernanda Winchester asked Nicely if she had ever entered a body-building competition. Now she was ready for another adventure.
Now 40, Nicely began training for her first figure competition, a division of bodybuilding meant for "very fit, well-toned but a softer body type" than what most people envision when they hear the word ‘bodybuilder.’ The competition is drug and steroid-free, usually requiring drug tests or polygraphs beforehand.

"My only goal was at the age of 40 to step on stage and look like I belonged there," Nicely said. "I didn’t go in thinking, ‘I’m going to win this.’ It was just, ‘What am I made of?’ ‘Do I have the discipline?’"
Nicely proved she had the discipline when she completed the Mount Rogers figure competition, but had a hard time sticking to her strict diet due to cravings when she began training for her second figure competition, the Natural North American last May.

"I’m human," Nicely said of her struggle. "I’m like any other woman. I don’t pretend that I’m not. When I’m in training it’s very disciplined and strict, but it’s worth every minute."

Difficult as it may be, the training and experience don’t just help Nicely, but aid her in becoming the best trainer she can be.

"The discipline that the body figure competition requires has caused her to have more sympathy and offer more inspiration to her clients," said Nicely’s friend Dave Sutton. He described her new-found interest in competing "a full-blown passion for fitness and nutrition."
But Nicely is so much more than just a trainer to her clients; she’s living proof that hard work, discipline and goals are all a person needs to change his or her life.

"A lot of women have a myth that they’re just going to look a certain way when they get beyond 40, and I’m here to teach them and prove them differently," Nicely said.

Fitness Together Named Official Sponsor of American Diabetes Association ‘Step Out: Walk to Fight Diabetes’ in DC

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Silver Spring, MD—Fitness Together, the nation’s top one-to-one personal training franchise, is pleased to announce it has been named the Official Health and Fitness Sponsor for the National Capital Area “Step Out: Walk to Fight Diabetes” event spearheaded by the American Diabetes Association (ADA).

The event will be held October 23, 2010, starting and ending at Nationals Park. The event’s walk route will feature a two-mile course around Nationals Park and a five-mile course throughout beautiful, historic neighborhoods of Eastern Market and Capitol Hill.

Fitness Together, America’s largest personal training franchise, was drawn to the cause in large part because it dovetails with the studios’ “no gimmicks” approach. Fitness Together was founded on the proven idea that one-to-one training in a private setting will always yield real, lasting results. The Fitness Together approach combines workouts, diet counseling, commitment and encouragement —and never includes fads, pills or the latest contraptions.

Numerous Fitness Together studios in the area have worked with diabetic or pre-diabetic children and adults. In some cases, they’ve helped clients lose over 100 pounds—and helped them keep the pounds off.

“With one in three children in America expected to face a future with diabetes, it’s a special honor to be helping with this effort right here in our nation’s capital,” said Ken Clarke, owner of a Fitness Together studio in Silver Spring and one of the event organizers. “We need to get ourselves moving again, get sugary snacks out of schools, help adults make healthy choices, and make the fight for a healthy, physically fit America a national priority.”

Local DC area Fitness Together studios have pledged to raise at least $25,000 for the ADA.

“Fitness Together’s mission to help their clients live healthier, happier lives is very much in line with our mission to prevent and cure diabetes and to improve the lives of all those affected by diabetes,” said Mary Merritt, Executive Director of the American Diabetes Association’s Washington, DC metro area market.

To find out how you can support Fitness Together’s efforts in “Step Out: Walk to Fight Diabetes,” please visit www.ftcustomfitness.com.

About Fitness Together Holdings, Inc.:

Based in Highlands Ranch, Colo., Fitness Together Holdings, Inc., is one of the world’s largest wellness organizations. The parent company oversees Fitness Together Franchise Corporation, http://corp.fitnesstogether.com, a one-on-one personal training fitness franchise established in 1983 that began franchising in 1996, and Elements Therapeutic Massage, Inc., http://corp.touchofelements.com, a massage therapy franchise that began franchising in 2006. Today, the combined franchise network has hundreds of franchises sold across the United States, Costa Rica, Brazil, Israel, Ireland, and Canada.

Top 5 Strategies at the Summer BBQ

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Fitness Together’s Army Officer-Turned-Workout Guru Offers:

‘Top 5 Strategies at the Summer BBQ’

Bethesda, MD—Its BBQ season again and Americans will once again face the temptations of the backyard grill. This is where we can all pack on the pounds if we aren’t careful, but help is here!

Rick Coe, one of Washington DC’s top local fitness experts, offers “TOP 5 STRATEGIES FOR THE SUMMER BBQ” to help you keep trim! A West Point graduate and former Army officer who now runs Fitness Together gyms in Bethesda and Rockville, Maryland, Rick offers the following proven strategies:

Strategy #1: “If you’re going to drink, choose light beer. This cuts your calories IN HALF! And no, it doesn’t mean you can have more than usual!”

Strategy #2: “Stay away from processed foods. Yes, that means chicken over hot dogs. And if you go back for seconds, choose protein (meats) over a plate of fattening potato salad slathered in mayo. You’re welcome.”

Strategy #3: “Instead of ice cream, cakes and pies, choose fruit. What’s to lose? The sun is still shining, you’re hanging out with friends, and life is good. No whining allowed!”

Strategy #4: “STAND, don’t sit, even when you’re eating! Sitting down to eat will encourage you to heap a plate with food. Standing keeps portions smaller and manageable.”

Strategy #5: “NEVER go to a party hungry or thirsty. Eat an apple on the way there, and drink a bottle of water. You’ll be amazed at how you can focus on friends, conversation, and a good time, rather than on the food.”

The leader in personal training, Fitness Together is a national franchise founded in 1996 that now has 400 locations worldwide. Fitness Together is different from all other gyms by offering one-on-one personal fitness training. Whether you are looking to lose weight, tone and tighten muscles or simply work toward better health, Fitness Together pairs you with a personal trainer in a private setting equipped with a workout plan tailored just for you. In addition to your personal fitness training regimen, Fitness Together offers nutritional guidance and a cardiovascular routine to help you attain your wellness goals. For more information, visit www.FTCustomFitness.com.

###

The Importance of Sleep

Sun, 25 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Sleep is an essential body process that ensures that our waking selves are in good condition physically, mentally, and emotionally. Get too little or too much sleep, and you'll function poorly, feel depressed and fatigued, having slower response times, be more prone to injuries, and lower your body's immune response, among other things. Here's another way to look at it- national traffic safety experts have reported that more fatal accidents are caused by drivers who are asleep at the wheel than are intoxicated.

The amount of sleep any given person needs is individual, and depends on their personal body chemistry and balance, the stressors they face in their life and the physical challenges they face. Between seven and ten hours is considered normal. If you wake up tired, changes are, you need more or less sleep. A lack of sleep threatens your health from all corners.

Exercise is a good way to both tire your body so you'll sleep easily at night and to ensure that you feel wakeful and energized during the day. A good night's sleep will ensure that your body can properly repair itself after a workout and that you'll have energy for your next workout. You should wake up feeling well rested and energized each morning.