Bob having a conversation with Dr. Leonard Kaplan from OWM Buffalo breaking down the benefits and applications of ARP Wave Therapy. Message or email me us you have any questions or would like to schedule a consultation with Bob to learn if ARP Wave is right for you.
Check out this great conversation I had with Dr. Kaplan from OWM Buffalo about the benefits of incorporating the NormaTec Recovery System into your wellness plan. A short 15-minute session helps flush toxins, reduce inflammation, improve circulation and oxygenation, and more.
Call Body Blocks to learn more about how it works or pricing. Discover the benefits that top athletes have been enjoying for years.
Call 716.847.2639 also be sure to visit OWN BUFFALO to learn more about the services that Dr. Kaplan and his team offer.
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SIGN UP: Thursdays at 4:00PM, Bob and Dr. Kaplan will be doing live Zoom training sessions. These training sessions will focus on global muscle activation emphasizing minimal stress to the joints and immune system. We will go over strategies that will give your home workouts order and direction. Super Slow Resistance Training and breath work will be incorporated into each session.
Check out this great conversation I had with my good friend and colleague Dr. Kaplan from OWM Buffalo about the importance of staying active and physically fit to reduce inflammation and support your immune system during times of stress. Watch for our upcoming Zoom workout sessions where we will be sharing tips, techniques, and strategies that you can implement at home or at the gym.
Nowadays we are exposed to all sorts of recommended work out styles, each of which have their own benefits. In this blog we are going to discuss the benefits that can be enjoyed by implementing a workout style that strategically combines the effectiveness of time, cardio, and compound movements; this workout is known as MC² (pronounced M C squared).
Start by establishing the basics:
Conventional weight training is the foundation of a good workout. Conventional training consists of exercises that incorporate an individual body part with single or [mutli] joint movements. Examples of these exercises would include basic: Presses, Rows, Fly, Squats, etc.This method of training is necessary to help establish your base. Without a good foundation, other workouts will be more difficult and often ineffective.
You should utilize conventional training methods and concentrate on proper form and technique before integrating compound movements into your workouts. Failure to do this may cause your workouts to get sloppy when you attempt to incorporate compound movements and could result in injuries. Clearly this is not functional or healthy for your body and may delay you achieving your fitness goals. Proper execution of exercises will accelerate your outcome.
Need help creating a conventional training program? Please consult a coach or a trainer. There is no shame in asking for help every now and again. All the best people, in whatever their vocation, have usually had some help or guidance along the way; the concept with your workouts is the same. When working out at the gym and unsure of how to use a piece of equipment or perform an exercise properly always ask a gym employee if there is someone to give you direction or feel free to shoot me an email and I’ll do my best to respond with the guidance that you need.
A MC² style workout (concept designed by Free Motion Fitness ) is a combination of timed compound movements and timed heavy-load cardio. Compound exercises are movements that utilize more than one body part at a time, such as squat/curls, lunge/chest press, lunge/triceps-extension, etc. 
Cardio is done at a slower pace but with a heavier load and with a high level of incline. This form of cardio places the load on the large muscle groups in your lower body, engaging your muscle longer to produce a higher caloric output.
In this workout you perform timed compound movements in rotation with your cardio. The benefits of this style of training include high caloric output from the increased muscle contractions that result from your compound exercises in combination with high intensity cardio. MC² workouts promote development of leaner muscle, muscle endurance and are great for melting away fat.
Before attempting MC² style workouts, be aware of your foundation. You may need to practice more conventional training methods so you are more aware of the movements. As I’ve said before it is more important to concentrate on technique and for to prevent injury and insure the maximum results. (Plus you don’t want to end up looking like a person falling out of a tree.)
MC² is a fun, challenging, and effective workout that is capable of delivering exceptional results. Please feel free to contact me at fitnessdefined@bodyblocksfitness.com for more information and as always enjoy your success.
Read More »Hello readers,
I want to apologize for my absence from blogging for the past couple of months. I promise that I have been hard at work during this time and I am excited to share some of the things that I’ve been working on with you.
One project that I’ve been able to kick off that I am extremely excited about is the implementation of a Body Blocks’ designed fitness and sports performance curriculum within the
Buffalo Public Schools. This program will begin this fall in 4 schools (Riverside, South Park, City Honors, and Emerson) and will expand to the remaining 12 high schools within the school year. The program will be incorporated as part of the current physical education curriculum and allow us to not only educate the students but also the faculty within these schools. This sets the groundwork for a sustainable long-term model rather than a short-term fix. We are confident that this program will not only serve as a major contributing factor towards developing a culture that produces fitter and healthier students, but also that leads to increased academic performance and fewer sports-related injuries; ultimately making our schools and our students more competitive in multiple arenas.
Another announcement that I am pleased to make is that I have recently learned that I have been named as one of Business First’s 2012 Healthcare 50, which recognizes me as “one of the top 50 extraordinary professionals in the medical field in Western New York.” I am extremely honored to be recognized on this list and in the company of the other great individuals who were also named, all of whom are committed to making Western New York a healthier community. This recognition came on the heals of another recognition that I received from the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA). I have been honored with the designation of a Registered Strength and Conditioning Coach Emeritus (RSCC,*E) which is the highest certification attainable through this organization. The NSCA only gives this title to individuals who have accumulated 20 or more years (WOW, time flies when you’re doing what you love!) as a trusted expert in their field and recognizes their area of expertise as separate and distinct from the medical, dietetic, athletic training, and sport coaching fields. This certification is significant not only because I get to add some more cryptic letters after my name, but more importantly because it secures my status as an industry expert and trusted source of information even after I retire (whatever that word means).
I have just returned from the IHRSA (International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association) Annual Convention in Los Angeles, CA. This event is the focal point of the fitness community every year and serves as the launching point for new breakthroughs in exercise techniques and equipment. My week was jam packed with seminars and meetings with some pretty amazing people within the industry. Anyone who has ever taken a trip and had people waiting for their return knows all too well that one of the first questions that you often get is, “what did you bring me?” Confident that my staff of trainers and clients at Body Blocks would have the same question for me, I knew that I had to bring them back something that they would appreciate and “remember” and a T-Shirt just wasn’t going to cut it! So my choice…
This piece of equipment may seem innocent enough, but after one 360MC session, even my most conditioned trainers were feeling the burn. I’ll save the details and the science of the equipment and the workout for a future post, but suffice it to say that after that workout nobody was asking what else I may have brought them. [insert maniacal laugh here]
In addition to that, I have a lot of other exciting things that I am working on that hopefully I will be able to share with you soon. In the mean time, I am pleased to return you to your regularly scheduled blog posts. As always thanks for reading and feel free to get in touch with me at fitnessdefined@bodyblocksfitness.com
Stay Healthy,
Bob
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No that’s not a misprint in the title, today we tackle another common fitness myth that I have heard time and time again: “If you want to lose weight you need to eat fewer calories than you burn off in a day”. Sound familiar? Now, depending on your size and gender you’ve probably been given a calorie goal somewhere between 1200-1500 calories a day.
Although this “could” happen to be your goal, in reality you’re calorie goal should be based on your Basil Metabolic Rate (BMR) and your level of activity. Your BMR is the number of calories your body burns at rest in a 24 hour period. In other words, it’s the amount of fuel your body needs to continue sustaining life. So how do you obtain this magic number? According to a formula provided in a 1990 study that appeared in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Basil Metabolic Rate is equal to:
from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal_metabolic_rate
It’s that simple! (insert sarcasm here)
Obviously the calculation is complicated and further studies have even included variables such as lean body mass and physiological elements. The good news is there are tools out there that provide these measurements for you. Although there seem to be some decent lower-cost, home products on the market, at Body Blocks we use a medical grade body composition analyzer called the InBody520. This piece of equipment provides us with a number of measurements (including BMR) which allow us to understand the unique physiology of each of our clients.
Now that we know how to get them, let’s look at what the numbers mean.
If you’re BMR is 1500 and you’re eating a recommended 1200 calories, you are not even providing your body enough fuel to make it through the day (and that’s if you were at rest all day). Since most individuals have some level of activity throughout the day, walking, climbing stairs, talking, exercising, etc. The true caloric deficit that they are experiencing is even greater than the 300 calories that is represented here.
If you think about your body as if it were a race car and that car required 11 quarts of oil to operate efficiently. If you decided to put only 5 quarts in, the car will still run, but at some point during the race it’s going to break down. Additionally the car’s support systems would experience increased stress, overheating, and in some cases permanent damage as they are forced to work with insufficient resources. Your body and it’s support systems respond in a very similar manner.
Unlike a race car, our bodies are able to interpret and adapt to changes in the environment. This means that when the body recognizes a pattern of high caloric deficits, it interprets this as starvation and goes into survival mode. At this point it starts managing fuel in an effort preserve energy, this means that it distributes the energy to essential life support systems while shutting down other systems and functions. Clearly this is probably not the result that most people would be looking for from their diet.
The best way to manage your weight is to understand how your body works. The first step is to learn your BMR. Keep in mind that your BMR increases as you increase your lean muscle mass. Put simply this means that the more lean muscle mass you add, the more 
you will NEED to eat for your body to operate efficiently. It also means that you will have to monitor your BMR on a consistent basis to ensure that you are always eating at least what your body needs to survive. Any attempts to lose weight should use strategies that reduce the extra calories that are consumed in addition to the BMR. This means that many of you will have to actually eat more if you want to effectively lose weight.
I hope that this article helps clarify this common fitness myth and empowers you with the knowledge necessary to achieve your fitness goals.
Read More »I want to first start off by thanking you all for reading my blog and for the tremendous response we’re getting. In this post I want to address a question we recently received via email at fitnessdefined@bodyblocksfitness.com (remember send me your questions). The question was submitted by John C. (one of our readers) who asked,
“what is better for you, cardio or weight training?”
This has got to be one of the most common questions that I have been asked throughout my career and honestly there are a number of different beliefs regarding the question. Surprisingly many people believe that cardio is the best choice between the two. A majority of people seeking to lose weight head straight for the treadmills or the elliptical trainers. The question is how did this become the “go to” remedy? The reality is that people hang on to the beliefs and myths as if they were facts and truths. They have no idea why, other than just because someone told them so. There is no real accreditation, it’s just “that’s the way it’s always been done”.
Any type of training should be result specific. This means that there should be a specific goal that the training is being used to accomplish. Cardio (short for cardiovascular) is a great method to strengthen the heart and lungs and to improve oxygen flow throughout the body. Yet as we stated, most individuals head to the cardio equipment when they are trying to lose weight and burn calories; very few people get on a cardio machine and say “oh I want to exercise my heart”. The reality is that cardio alone burns fewer calories than weight training. You might be saying right now “no, no that can’t be true” and I hate to break it to you, but it is.
Me training my good friend and long-time client Jerry
Obviously during your workouts you want to try and burn fat instead of muscle. You can do this by focusing on burning off your glycogen first. When the body breaks down complex carbs it produces glycogen which is then stored in your muscles as energy. Your body is going burn off glycogen first before it burns the fat. It’s easier to burn, like burning pine in fire vs. a piece of oak. The pine will burn first.
Resistance training in the work zone* produces three times the caloric output of cardio. This means that you want to structure your workouts to ensure that you have enough energy to hit the work zone associated with your fitness goals. In order to effectively reach the work zone, your muscles will require energy (glycogen). When you do your cardio before your resistance training, the initial 20 minutes are spent burning that glycogen which results in not having the energy to achieve your desired rep range; it will be as if someone has unplugged you. By starting with Resistance training you ensure that your muscles have the energy that they need to achieve the desired output. What’s better is that when you follow up your resistance training with cardio, your body is already in the fat burning zone. This means that you are maximizing the potential of your entire workout!
So the real answer to John’s question is that fitness should not be a trade-off of Cardio or Resistance, rather it is a matter of balancing the two to ensure success. At the end of the day, getting the best fitness results are a simple matter of exercise efficiency. Hopefully this article demonstrates the drastic impact that something as simple as the order of exercise can have on fitness results.
For more information check out this article “Warm Up With Cardio, Then Go to Weights. Right? Wrong”.
Another great fitness myth busted! Thanks for the question John.
Send your fitness questions to me directly at: fitnessdefined@bodyblocksfitness.com
*Work zone: Maximum output for a desired rep range. For example an individual attempting to increase muscle endurance should work in a 12 rep max range. Therefore if more than 12 reps are achieved the weight was too light and if less than 12 reps the weight was too heavy.
3 Basic Work Zone Ranges:
Strength: 6 Rep Max
Hypertrophy: 8 Rep Max
Endurance: 12 Rep Max
Happy New Year readers! Many people are currently flooding their local fitness centers and produce aisles, fueled by the motivation of the promises they’ve made to themselves to get healthier this year. As I’ve said in the past fitness is not simply exercising, it is a lifestyle and perhaps the largest part of that lifestyle is choosing the proper foods to include in our daily diets.
I wanted to use this post to share a few simple facts to guide you in structuring a healthy daily diet. The following guidelines should provide you with some basic fundamentals to get you going in the right direction. We’ll tackle some of the more complex issues in future posts.
First you should try to avoid starting your day off with nothing to eat or by consuming only simple carbs. As a general rule try mixing a protein with a complex carb (preferably an hour apart). Space your meals out every 3-4 hours. After all we are really designed to graze.
Simple Carbs are mainly sugars or highly processed complex carbs that can give the same affect. These can be used as instant energy prior to a workout. You’ll burn it up before you crash. Now, I’m not saying go eat a spoonful of sugar, but if there is a little sugar in a pre-workout drink so what! Any sugars and processed carbs, like white flour, act as simple carbs and are not good in abundance. General rule of thumb I like to follow is “the easier to grab and go food is (not including fruits) the more processed it is likely to be. For example, instant oatmeal has more of the affects of a simple carb than oatmeal that takes even a few minutes to cook.
Complex carbs are your grain products and some vegetables that the body converted into glycogen and are stored as an energy source in your muscle. These carbs are a sustainable energy source for your body.
You should be consuming about 1gram of protein per lb of lean body mass. If you are active in exercise and resistance training, you should be bumping that up to 1 1/2-2 grams per lb of lean
body mass. Don’t try and eat your recommended amount of protein. Try adding in a supplement like a high quality protein powder to your diet.Proteins are used by our body to rebuild tissue. We tend to be a more protein deficient society because they have to be prepared and we see them as less convenient. Protein also helps to stabilize insulin levels in our bodies.
A common balanced diet ratio is broken down as follows:
60% carbs 30% proteins and 10% fats.
For those calorie counters out there:
As I said this was meant to be a simple guide. Ultimately diets are simply an ongoing set of choices that we make everyday. Information allows us to make educated and informed decisions. So the question is: now that you’re better informed, what choices will you make today?
“…diets are no longer a matter of ‘to eat or not to eat?’ …rather they become a behavior of making the proper choices between WHAT to eat and what NOT to eat.”
We have done an excellent job in America of tabooing the word diet to mean something bad. To mean “I have to starve myself” when in reality everyone is on a diet. Whatever you are eating is your diet.
The need to eat is innate. Your body tells you that it needs fuel. “I can’t concentrate”, “I’m tired”, “I feel weak”, these are all different ways your body tells you it needs fuel.
What you eat on the other hand is a learned behavior. So addressing your diet becomes a case of behavior modification. Once you do this, diets are no longer a matter of ‘to eat or not to eat?’ …rather they become a behavior of making the proper choices between WHAT to eat and what NOT to eat.; That is the real question that everyone should be asking.
So once you wrap your head around that and remove the negative stigma surrounding the word, you realize that you simply have to change or better your diet. That’s where the challenge lies. It’s in creating the habit. But once you do, you empower yourself to truly change your life.
Now, you need to be educated on what the right choices are. Please don’t attempt to make an immediate 180 degree change in your diet. It’s important to make a few changes at a time. If I asked you to jump a 10ft distance in a single jump I’m setting you up to fail. But, if I ask you to make that same distance in 3 jumps you are more likely to succeed.
Take the same approach to your diet and before you know it, you’ll be making healthy choices without a whole lot of conscious effort.
You now have the proper mind set to start this journey, now stay tuned for some more specific healthy eating tips that will help you along the way.
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