In this issue...

• What's New at StrongFast?
• Feature Article: Tone Def
• Fitness Found Online
• Recipe: Celery-Apple Green Smoothie

What's New at StrongFast?

It's officially summer! And that means:

• Grilling
• Mowing
• Biking
• Swimming

And, of course, vacations! So StrongFast will be on vacation from July 1-14. You can be sure we'll all still be eating well and training hard, of course. Because it feels so good!

When we get back, we'll be dialing up the intensity, making up for lost time and setting some new challenging goals. What will you be doing, hmmm?

But don't worry, The Planet will still go out on schedule. Happy summer!

Feature Article

Tone Def

Ask the average person what their fitness goal is and there's probably a better than even chance the answer will include some reference to "tone", as in "tone up" or "get toned" or "win a toney." (OK, that last one maybe not so much.)

But what does it really mean?

It's often defined with some variation of "firm up" and this is pretty much interchangeable with "tone up." But it's not particularly helpful.

"Toned" is one of those things you know when you see it, but how do you get it? Ultimately, it comes down to two things: lose fat and build muscle. Because the toned look is all about muscle definition, and to make muscles more defined you either need to make them bigger so they're more prominent, or reduce the fat that's hiding them.

In most cases, you need to do both. If you just lose fat, you can wind up looking skinny rather than toned. And if you just build muscle, you'll still lack definition as fat fills in the lines around the muscles and makes them look too much like marshmallow. (The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man looked pretty well built, but definitely not toned.)

People often just want to tone their arms, or more often their waistlines. But "spot reducing" is still a myth, despite some misplaced excitement over a Danish study saying specific exercises can induce "spot lipolysis" in adipose tissue, it's still a myth. When you show me a fat person with a six-pack, then I'll take another look ("he did lots of sit-ups!"); until then, expect to need general fat-loss to get toned. (As noted earlier, working specific muscles to make them bigger can help that area look more toned, but that's not the same as losing fat in a specific spot.)

And unfortunately, fat tends to be in a FILO queue: first-in-last-out. That is, the places where you get fast first are usually the places that lose fat last. (Sound familiar?)

So what should the toned-wannabe do? Mostly, two things:

1. Eat well. Plenty of protein, lots of veggies, skip the sugar ... you know the drill. Your diet will be the biggest factor in achieving your toniness.
2. Train smart. Use resistance training--barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, resistance bands, bodyweight, etc.--to build muscle that will show through those dwindling fat stores. Keep a full range of motion in your movements and use weights that you can't lift 15 times.

You can add aerobic and interval training to help speed things up, and intermittent fasting if you handle it well. There's no way around it: you need to shed the fat and (usually) add some muscle. And that's tone defined.

Be seeing you.

-gary

Fitness Found Online

While a new study indicates that the flavonoids in dark chocolate can work like sunscreen, the devil's in the details. You'd need a little more than 3 ounces (a large bar) to get the flavonoid level used in the study. That's a lot of chocolate, even the dark stuff.

A study indicates that exercise frequency is not key, it's the total amount that counts. This is only looking at aerobic exercise, though, and only in a narrow context. But for you walkers, something to consider.

Recipe: Celery-Apple Green Smoothie

In honor of our new Vitamix, here's a simple smoothie recipe. Enjoy!

Celery-Apple Green Smoothie