• Bend your wrists to work your biceps harder. That is, extend them backward slightly—and hold them that way—while you do arm curls.
• Don’t exercise when you’re sick—unless your symptoms are above the neck. And even then you might do better taking a day off. “Your body will use its resources to heal itself, not build muscle and endurance,” says a trainer.
• Use a sofa cushion to improve your balance. Stand one-legged on the cushion and move a medicine ball (or a 1-gallon milk jug or heavy phone book) from hand to hand, side to side, and behind your head. Once you’ve mastered the move, try it with your eyes closed. “You’ll improve your balance, coordination, and body control, all important athletic attributes,” says an assistant coach.
• Do the same amount of exercise in 10 percent less time. It forces your muscles to work harder and improves your endurance at the same time. If it takes you 30 minutes to do a full-body workout on Monday, try to do it in 27 minutes on Wednesday.
• Play better tennis by training your eyes to focus faster. You’ll hit more winners by learning to change your visual focus from distance, when your opponent is hitting the ball, to close up, when you’re hitting it. Try this drill while riding in a car: Focus on an object about a tennis-court length away. Then quickly shift focus to a closer object.
• Drink low-fat milk. Scientists in Canada found that people who consumed more than 600 milligrams of calcium a day—roughly the amount in 2 cups of milk, a cup of broccoli, and a half cup of cottage cheese—had lower body fat than those who consumed less than 600 milligrams a day.
• When you’re putting, aim high on breaks. “Whatever you think the break is, double it and you’ll come much closer to being correct,” says a consultant to dozens of PGA pros.
• Follow this simple formula to build more muscle: Multiply the amount of weight you lift for a particular exercise by the total number of times you lift it. Try to increase that number every workout by lifting heavier weights, increasing your repetitions, or doing more sets.
• Spend twice as much time stretching your tight muscles as your flexible muscles. “Focus on problem areas instead of muscles that are already flexible,” says a professor of physical therapy. Typical problem areas for men: hamstrings, shoulders, and lower back.
• When you’re recovering from a muscle injury, begin exercising again as soon as you can. Try a few minutes at low intensity to test yourself. Go slowly—no explosive movements. If you experience pain, stop immediately. Afterward, ice the area for 20 minutes and exercise again the next day. You should be able to go a little harder and longer each workout.
• It’s more stressful to be fat than to stop overeating.
• Do not Skip meals. Many healthy eaters diet by day and binge by night. You are only fooling yourself.
• Be careful of snacking. You can easily munch 600 calories of pretzels or chips without realizing it.
• Watch your serving size. A serving of pasta is 1 cup, but some people routinely eat 4 cups and think that they are just eating one.
• Avoid the super size bagels. Some have a calorie content of 400 to 500 calories per bagel.

I am a mother of 2 boys, (5 years old and 8 months old baby) and I teach in an elementary school.

I am 38 years old. I got pregnant in December 2010 of my second child and gave birth September 6^th. As soon as I got the ok from my doctor I decided I wanted to take care of my body. As I had planned, I officially became a Greco member October 17^{th 2011}. I signed up for the 10 weeks Lean and fit program at Greco-Sparks. As soon as I entered the building and touched ground, it already felt so positive! The staff at the counter as well as the trainers made me feel so comfortable and I quickly felt as part of their family!

I started training 3 to 4 times per week, changed my whole eating habits. It became a lifestyle instead of a diet. For me, it was just being able to be more conscious of what I was eating.

When I first started the classes, I was nervous but the trainers are so empathetic to your needs that you feel you can go at your own pace and at the same time give it your all. After 10 weeks I had lost 20 pounds and 6% of body fat. I was at 37% when I first started. I was so proud. Went from a size 12 to 8.  It motivated me even more. I kept going on and now after 27 weeks I lost 35 pounds and 12% of body fat. I am now a size 5. Never felt this great in my life. After 7 months I am now back at work and I feel so energized and less tired. Training at Greco has given me so much strength, energy and extra confidence that I also registered for the half-marathon in Ottawa.

Becoming a Greco’s member has been the best decision for a healthy mind and body!

Tony Greco’s GymBag Segment on Team1200! Aired on April 18th, 2012. Listen in Every Wednesday at 8:30am

• NHL Playoffs – Tony’s en route to Philly
• Tony talks about the Greco Transformation Contest

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I am a 29 year old mom of 3, (ages 3,5,7), and daycare provider.

I was always a competitive athlete growing up (figure skating, gymnastics) right up until I had my first child at 22. With the hustle and bustle of pregnancies and young kids, I completely let go of myself, going from my usual fit 125lbs to 167lbs! (180s during pregnancy!!) My body fat was up in the 30% range and I was completely miserable.

After having my 3rd child, I decided it was time to take charge of my life and focus on my own health and happiness again. I made the decision and did everything I could to ensure I never go back. Proper diet, regular workouts and running have changed me in many ways… Returning to my pre-pregnancy weight and down to 16% bodyfat. I’m stronger and more fit than I’ve ever been, and happier as well.

• Keep your heels on the floor when you squat. If you can’t, your hip flexors are too tight. Try this stretch: Hold onto the sides of the squat rack and lower yourself until your thighs are parallel to the ground. Hold for 30 seconds. Return to a standing position, then repeat five times.
• Squeeze the bar inward when you bench-press. This works more muscles in your chest. But squeeze it outward when you do the close-grip version of the exercise—this hits your triceps harder.
• For straight-on putts, aim exactly 17 inches past the hole. That’s because the 17 inches of green surrounding the cup will be free of footprints, meaning blades of grass there are thicker and more upright and will slow down your putts dramatically.
• To save time, use the same weight for your entire workout. Pick the weight based on your weakest exercise—choose an amount you can lift only six to eight times—and do the moves in a circuit.
• If you’re a runner and your calves feel tight when you wake up in the morning, try sleeping on your stomach with your feet hanging off the bed. Gravity will take over, lightly stretching the calf muscles all night.
• Don’t work your abdominal muscles every day. “Physiologically, your abs are like any other muscle in your body,” says an exercise scientist. Train them only 2 or 3 days a week.
• Put your tongue on the roof of your mouth when you do crunches. “It will help align your head properly, which helps reduce neck strain,” says an exercise advisor.
• If you’re under 40, hold your stretches for 30 seconds. If you’re over 40, hold them for 60 seconds. As you reach your 40s, your muscles become less pliable, so they need to be stretched longer.
• To catch a pop fly in the sun, use your glove to shade your eyes. It’s bigger than your free hand and puts the leather in perfect position to snag the ball.
• Keep your weight workouts under an hour. After 60 minutes, your body starts producing more of the stress hormone cortisol, which can have a testosterone-blocking, muscle-wasting effect.
• Schedule your weekly plan on Sundays and share it with friends and co-workers to see if they want to join. Tweet it to see who’s interested in going.
• Providing balance in your diet involves an intentional inclusion of different foods in proportion to each other based on the value that each food has to your total goal.
• Breathe deeply and appreciate the moment. Living in the moment could be the meaning of life.
• No matter how much genetics predetermines how you store and lose fat, the body you’ve been given will still respond positively to being appreciated and treated well.
• If your goals are to work out more, make it a priority. You’ll feel better, get more done, and be happier.

Grand Prize to the winner is an all expense paid trip for 2 to Jamaica! (Approx. Value $2500)

• OPEN to all New and Existing members
• Share your success and motivate others
• Entry is made via an application in the form of a Greco Success Story
• Application must include a picture and the details as to how Greco has helped them or is helping them reach their goals
• Members can submit their Transformation story in a one paragraph email submission to transformation@grecoleanandfit.com
• All Transformations will be posted on our site allowing individuals to vote on their favourite success story
• VOTING will open on June 25th to July 1st – with the winner being selected on July 3rd
• CONTEST will start April 16th and will run to June 24th at midnight
  • This will give current members as well as new members a significant amount of time to begin focusing/refocusing on their goals

Grand Prize to the winner is an all expense paid trip for 2 to Jamaica! (Approx. Value $2500)

Contestants are thus far, click here!

• Increase the speed of your running strides—not their length—to get faster. Your foot should always land under your body, rather than out in front of it, and you should push off with the toes of your rear leg for propulsion.
• Don’t train with a weight belt. Over time, regular training in a weight belt actually weakens your abdominal and lower-back muscles. Wear it only when attempting maximal lifts in such exercises as squats, deadlifts, and overhead presses.
• Practice cycling one-legged to ride more efficiently. This forces you to concentrate on pulling up at the bottom of the stroke, which better distributes the work among the major leg muscles. Lock both feet on your pedals, but let your left leg go limp while you do all the work with your right leg. Do this for 30 seconds, then switch legs. Ride normally for 5 minutes, then repeat the drill. Continue this way for a 20- to 30-minute workout.
• Pay your trainer in advance. “You’ll be more likely to follow through on exercise sessions,”.
• Work your invisible abdominal muscles. Your transversus abdominis lies beneath your rectus abdominis—the six-pack muscle—and flattens your waistline when you suck in your gut. Work it with the vacuum: Pull your belly button toward your spine and hold for 10 seconds while breathing normally. Repeat five times.
• For the duration of the holidays, wear your snuggest clothes that don’t allow much room for expansion. Wearing sweats is out until January.
• After your company leaves, give away your leftover food to neighbors, doormen, delivery people, or take it to work the next day.
• Skipping breakfast will leave you tired and by midmorning you will be craving and making bad food choices.
• To fill up try this sweet, fruity breakfast. In a blender, process 1-cup nonfat plain or vanilla yogurt, 1 1/3 cup frozen strawberries (no added sugar), 1 peeled kiwi, and 1 peeled banana. Pulse until mixture is milkshake consistency. Makes one 2-cup serving; 348 calories and 1.5 fat grams.
• Don’t pop a pill after you work out. Researchers for Medical Sciences found that ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) and acetaminophen (Tylenol) were no more effective than a placebo in relieving postexercise muscle soreness. More important, they say the drugs may actually suppress muscle growth when taken after a workout.
• If you’re not exercising at all, just try to fit in two 20-minute aerobic or weight-training sessions a week. Researchers examined absentee records of 79,000 workers at 250 sites and found that those who did this minimal amount of exercise had fewer sick days than those who didn’t exercise at all.
• To make a steal in basketball, swipe up, not down. Refs and whiny opponents are just waiting for you to hack down on the ball. Flicking up is more subtle and surprising—and if you do poke the ball away, it’ll be higher and easier to grab.
• To sprint faster, work your hamstrings. They help you push off and develop speed. Try this variation of the leg curl: Pull the weight toward you with your ankles flexed (as you normally would) so that your toes are pointing toward your shins. But when you lower the weight, extend your ankles so that your toes are pointing away from your shins. Your hamstrings will work harder than with the traditional version of the exercise.
• To mountain-bike uphill faster, edge forward in the saddle to distribute your weight more evenly between the front and rear wheels. If you slip back too far, you’ll cause the front wheel to skitter off the ground. If you lean too far forward, you’ll lose traction on the back tire.
• When doing squats, rest the bar so that as much of it as possible is touching your shoulders. Holding it only on your lower neck causes the entire weight to compress your spine, which can lead to spinal and muscle injuries.

Greco Corporate is pleased to announce the opening of 2 new Greco locations in Ottawa;  Kanata South  and  Colonnade Road!

Now is your chance to Save $200 by Pre-registering for our legendary 10 week Lean and Fit Program! For more details on this and the location, please click here for Kanata South and click here for Colonnade Road

Stay on top of the latest in Health and Fitness with Grecosize…

• Former NHL defenseman Dan McGillis with Off-Ice Hockey Training advise for minor Hockey Players
• How to rev up your metabolism
• The best workout for fat burning
• How to cut down that beer gut

Team1200 Grecosize Promo:

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CFRA Greco Lean & Fit for Life Promo:

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Tune in this Saturday at 7AM on CFRA, or 9AM on Team 1200 to listen live or by podcast on the Team 1200 website.

To listen to full previous shows, click here.

Makes 8 large bars

Ingredients

• 2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
• 1/2 cup softened coconut butter
• 3-4 scoops of chocolate whey protein powder
• 3/4 – 1 cup water

NOTE: If you are using quick oats instead of old fashioned, you will require less water

Directions

1. Line a square baking dish with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, add water to 3/4 cup of water to the oats, stir, and let the mixture sit for 10 minutes so the oats absorb the water.
3. Add the protein powder and coconut butter to the mixture. With clean hands, kneed the batter until all the ingredients are well combined and the mixture becomes moist and doughy. (I found it helps to roll it all into a big, solid ball). If the powder is not dissolving into the mixture, add more water, a tablespoon at a time.
4. Press the mixture into the square dish evenly. Flatten out the top with a spatula until smooth and even.
5. Pop in the freezer for 30 min. The mixture should be firm and cool but not frozen solid. Lift the paper out of the dish onto a cutting board and cut into desired squares.

Topping tips: Feel free to add other ingredients to the mix like mashed banana, almonds, ground flax seed, anything goes! You may even want to top the squares with a sprinkling of unsweetened, shredded coconut, or slivered almonds before freezing.

Nutritional info for 8 bars:
Calories: 250
Carbs: 21 g
Protein: 20 g
Fat: 20 g

*Nutritional info will vary slightly depending on the type of whey protein you use

• If you’re famished by 4 p.m. and have no alternative but an office vending machine, reach for the nuts or drink water. Sometimes when you feel hungry what you are actually feeling is dehydrated.
• If you haven’t eaten in 3 to 4 hours, your blood glucose levels are probably dropping, so eating a small amount of nutrient-rich food will give your brain and your body a boost.
• Food suppliers typically freeze vegetables just a few hours after harvest, locking in their nutrients. Fresh vegetables, on the other hand, often spend days in the back of a truck before they reach your supermarket.
• Overeating is not the result of exercise. Vigorous exercise won’t stimulate you to overeat. It’s just the opposite. Exercise at any level helps curb your appetite immediately following your workout.
• When you’re exercising, you shouldn’t wait to feel thirsty before you take a drink. By the time you feel thirsty, you’re already dehydrated.
• If you think you’re too busy to exercise, try this experiment: For one day, schedule a time to work out, and then stick to it—even if you can exercise for only 10 minutes. “At the end of the day, ask yourself if you were any less productive than usual,” says an exercise psychologist. The answer will probably be no—and your favorite excuse will be gone.
• To build forearm strength for tennis and racquetball, crumple newspaper: Lay a newspaper sheet on a flat surface. Start at one corner and crumple it into a ball with your dominant hand for 30 seconds. Repeat with your other hand.
• When doing lat pulldowns, don’t wrap your thumb around the bar. Instead, place it on top, alongside your index finger. This decreases the involvement of your arm muscles, so you’ll work your back harder. Works for pullups, too.
• If you’re a beginner, train to failure—the point at which you absolutely can’t do another repetition—then throw back a pint. In a new study, beginners who trained to failure with three sets of six exercises per day then drank a supplement immediately afterward gained over 5 pounds of muscle in just 8 weeks. A pint of 1 percent chocolate milk will provide all the nutrients you need to achieve the same result.
• If you don’t like an exercise, start doing it. “You’re probably avoiding it because you’re weak at it”.
• I still love scrambled eggs in a nonstick pan (I use only egg whites). Pop some asparagus in the microwave and add whole-wheat toast and presto your eating in no time!
• If you hurt your right arm, don’t stop exercising your left arm. Researchers found that people who trained only one arm for 2 weeks managed to increase arm strength in their nonexercising arm up to 10 percent. The reason: Exercising one arm stimulates the muscle nerve fibers in the opposite arm.
• Count your repetitions backward. When you near the end of the set, you’ll think about how many you have left instead of how many you’ve done.
• Do standing and seated calf raises. You’ll get better results. “Your calves are made up of two different muscles, so you have to do the straight-leg and the bent-leg versions of the exercise to hit them both”.
• Test yourself often. Every 4 weeks, measure a variable—waist size, body fat, bench press—that equates to your end goal. “It’ll show you the tangible results of your training,” says a trainer in Canada. And that translates into motivation.

Tony Greco’s GymBag Segment on Team1200! Aired on March 28th, 2012. Listen in Every Wednesday at 8:30am

• Happy Birthday Tony!
• Greco Body Transformation Challenge

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• Don’t tell yourself, “It’s okay, it’s the holidays.” That opens the door to 6 weeks of splurging and added pounds with every party, cookie and drink.
• Remember, EAT before you meet.
• Put  your gear out the night before you are going to work out.
• Everyone can improve their appearance,  health and performance levels by implementing the principles of a safe and effective eating and exercise program.
• Drink cold unsweetened raspberry tea. It tastes great and keeps your mouth busy and you won’t binge eat while watching your favorite show .
• Change your nighttime schedule. It will take effort, but it will pay off. You need something that will occupy your mind and hands. Maybe find a hobby .
• If you’re eating at night due to emotions, you need to focus on getting in touch with what’s going on and taking care of yourself in a way that really works.
• Find a nonfood method of coping with your stress like exercise and you don’t have to go to a gym, you can simply go for a walk.
• Fat-free isn’t always your best bet and doesn’t mean low in calories. Research has found that none of the lycopene or alpha- or beta-carotene that fight cancer and heart disease is absorbed from salads with fat-free dressing. Only slightly more is absorbed with reduced-fat dressing. The most is absorbed with full-fat dressing. But remember to use your dressing in moderate amounts and have it on the side.
• Drink 8 ounces of water an hour before and another 4 to 8 ounces every 15 to 20 minutes during your workout. Finish with at least 16 ounces after you’re done exercising.
• Listen to an audio book while you walk. It’ll keep you going longer and looking forward to your next walk and the next chapter!
• Think yoga’s too serene to burn calories? Think again. You can burn 250 to 350 calories during an hour-long class (that’s as much as you’d burn from an hour of walking)!
• Drink water! dehydration can slow your metabolism by 3 percent, or about 45 fewer calories burned a day, which in a year could mean weighing 5 pounds more.
• Set up goals that are preposterously, stupendously easy, things at which you cannot possibly fail.
• If you pay the money to do a 30-day challenge, you´re more likely to actually go. Plus, a little friendly competition always helps.