Marines are well known for their saying “pain is weakness leaving the body.”  This saying is typically referring to the pain associated with giving 100% effort.  It can be a painful experience to pump out 100 push ups without stopping or to do 100 non-stop sit-ups, but this is a good pain that will cease almost immediately after you are finished with the exercise.  Of course, it may result in some muscle soreness later on but this is typically normal.   After all, Marine style workouts tend to be more intense than most other workouts so muscle soreness in the beginning is common.   If you are experiencing pain in your joints, ligaments or other places that you are unsure of, don’t attempt to “push through it.”  Don’t take unnecessary risks simply to finish a workout.  Stop and consult with your physician.

Don’t consume more calories than you use.

It really is as simple as that but I’m amazed at the number of people who just don’t know how many calories they should be consuming or what a proper portion size is.  Here are a few tips that will hopefully help you to shed the pounds.

Know how many calories you need. There are many calculators on the internet that will give you an estimate of the amount of calories you need.  You can use our calorie calculator to get an estimate of the amount of calories you need to maintain your current weight.

Stay away from diets. No need to deprive yourself of food, especially nutrient rich food.  Of course, you should lower your intake of sugar, fats and anything with empty calories such as candies, sodas, etc.  You can continue to eat normal healthy meals but say no to seconds and take notice of your portion sizes.  You should feel good after eating and not stuffed.  Don’t get involved in diets that deprive you of foods and meals, it will do more harm than good.

Stay active. You should be active everyday in some way.  I suggest getting started on an exercise program that will guide you through.  The more active you are, the more calories you will burn.  Just don’t try and make up for the extra calories lost by stuffing yourself even more with food.

Losing weight is not a mystery, it is easy to do and ANYONE can do it.  If you are currently overweight or are currently gaining weight, there can only be one explanation;  you are consuming too many calories.  Lower your caloric intake and stay active and the rest will take care of itself.

There are only a small percentage of people that will take the time to commute to a gym consistently.  Many that I know who rely on a gym for their only physical activity, get tired of the inconvenience and simply give up.

Now, I’m not saying a gym membership is a bad idea, but you need to realize whether you need the services of a gym or not before committing to that contract.  It could be a costly mistake.  Many people join a gym at the first of the year or during a time when they are dissatisfied with their current health situation, only to find that after a few weeks or months, they are not even using it any longer.  A few questions to ask yourself before signing up at the gym might be:

1. Am I willing to put in the time necessary to make my gym membership worth the cost?
2. Do I find it uncomfortable working out around other people?
3. Is there a better way to accomplish my health & fitness  goals without going to the gym?
4. Will this add more stress to my daily schedule?
5. Do I truly see myself sticking with this on a continuous basis throughout my contract?

If your answers to the questions above don’t support buying a gym membership, I would strongly suggest getting involved in a home workout program.  There are many ways to workout at home and you will need minimal equipment depending on your current fitness level and your fitness goals.

Marine Style Fitness – All of our exercise programs are designed to be done at home.  You will need a pull-up bar, some dumbbells and possibly a weight bench depending on which exercise program you choose.

You can choose to purchase a home gym or other home exercise equipment – There are many popular brands of home gym equipment on the market today including Bowflex, TotalGym, Stack Systems, etc.  These offer great benefits and can even be incorporated into our growing list of workouts here at Marine Style Fitness.

Video games – There are many fitness games available on the Wii that can help you to get off the couch but I don’t recommend using these for a full fledged exercise program.  You need something that will constantly challenge you; this is the only way you will see results.

DVD & video programs – Infomercial exercise programs have become popular because the video will guide you through the workouts and help you to stay focused.   A lot of these programs offer “boot camp” type of workouts that utilize military style exercises just as we do here.

The way you choose to workout at home should be enjoyable to you or else you are not going to stick with it.  Humans always gravitate toward the things that they enjoy the most or that they find the most pleasure in.  Make your workouts fun and don’t think of them as something you have to do.  Think of working out as something that CAN improve the quality of your life.

You may have noticed the name change from MarineCorpsFitness.com to MarineStyleFitness.com but you can be sure that everything else is the same.  We have changed our name due to trademark issues with the US Marine Corps.  With the term “Marine Corps” being trademarked by the US Marine Corps, we found it necessary to change our name in order to move forward as a legal business entity.  Nothing will be affected by this name change and most people will not even recognize it.  If you created an account (free or premium) when it was marinecorpsfitness.com, everything will still work as it did then.

Please contact us or post a comment if you are having issues that may be associated with the site name change and we will get it fixed.

Thanks to everyone for your support!

• A Cleaner design
• Easier to navigate control panel
• Fixed bugs and issues that have been reported by users
• More information presented to help you achieve better results
• Additional features built into the control panel
• Premium features available to paid members (at a very low cost)

I am excited about this re-design because it will give me a better opportunity to serve all of my clients with a cleaner and more user friendly system.  I have listened to users over the past year in order to have a better system built so I welcome any other comments or ideas that you would like to see on our site.  Look forward to this new design…coming soon.

A few benefits of including a warm-up routine include:

Increased body temperature – slowly increasing your body’s core temperature helps to minimize muscle and connective tissue injuries.

Increased blood flow – when you increase the blood flow, you increase the amount of fuel that is supplied to the muscles.

Preparing the muscular and cardiovascular system – warming up provides an easy transition from the resting state to strenuous physical activity state.  This can help reduce injuries and muscle soreness.

It is important to remember to always warm-up before conducting any stretching exercises.  Increasing the temperature in your muscles will give you greater flexibility and help to avoid common injuries due to overstretching.

I don’t really recommend any supplements as I am a big believer that nature gives us everything we need in order for our bodies to function at optimal levels.  I believe in only getting nutrition from the foods that nature gives us and not allowing “lab produced” chemicals into the body.  However I realize that in today’s world, foods simply don’t carry the amounts of nutrients as they once did, especially those that aren’t grown organically.  If supplements are to be used, there are some guidelines that I always follow and recommend anyone to follow.

1. Use only supplements that contain natural, organic ingredients (particularly raw sources).  Our bodies recognize these types of supplements and have no trouble utilizing them just as if they were real food.
2. Protein should be taken in moderation.  Many people take way too much protein.  I never take more than 1 gram per pound of LEAN body weight.  So since I weigh 178 and have 10% body fat, my lean body weight is about 160.  Therefore, I wouldn’t consume more than 160 grams of protein in one day.
3. Supplements should not be used for “meal replacements.”  They should be taken in conjunction with a healthy nutritional lifestyle.

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My favorite choices are:

1. Bicycling – whether indoor or outdoor, this is one of the best aerobic conditioning workouts available. It is also much easier on the joints than running.
2. Swimming -swimming is great cardio with virtually no impact on the joints.
3. Rollerblading – if you’ve never tried rollerblading, then you definately should.  You’ll be surprised at the workout you could get from this low impact exercise.

There are many other options available to you if you prefer not to run such as jumping rope, spinning, aerobic classes, skiing, rowing, eliptical trainers, stair climbers…and the list goes on.  Whatever you do, make sure it’s something you enjoy so you’ll be more inclined to stick to it.

Join us today and stop trying to find the “miracle” workout machine or program.