Preventing the Infamous “Freshman 15”

May is finally here. So…

That means seniors in high school are already knees-deep in the senior slump and have a serious case of “senioritis.”

But, what they (and their parents) should be most concerned about is fighting the scary trend of gaining 15+ lbs their freshman year in college.

Seriously, they might soon start calling it the FRESHMAN 50 if someone doesn’t step in right NOW and educate our youngsters about proper training and sound nutrition.

Before I share my top 10 tips to fight this trend, let’s first identify why this is important, beyond the obvious health benefits:

1.) Perception is Reality: Studies show that leaner, more attractive people are more employable and earn higher wages- it’s a fact! If you want a fighting chance of getting and keeping a job, in addition to climbing the corporate ladder, you simply cannot overlook your personal appearance and presentation.

2.) Build a Recession-Proof Body: Whenever the economy is struggling and companies are forced to tighten up their budgets, they’ll “trim the fat” from their employee base (both literally and figuratively). If it comes down to two people with equal skills, the leaner, healthier employee will always win!

• So enough with the politics already, let’s get to the meat and potatoes. Here you go:

10 Tips to Fight the Freshman 15

TIP#1- Invest in a Whole Body Workout

Perform a five-exercise circuit employing body weight-based exercises that’s designed to work your upper body, lower body, and core within the same workout at least three times per week with a day of rest between workouts

-Alternate between 50 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest for each a double-leg (e.g. squat), push (e.g. push-up), single-leg (e.g. lunge), pull (e.g. row), and core (e.g. plank/bridge) exercise.

-Perform up to 4 rounds without rest for a killer 20-minute total body workout that you can do anywhere

TIP#2- Harness the Power of Intervals

-Interval training has been scientifically proven to burn 9x more body fat than traditional exercise, and it will elevate metabolism for up to 24-48 hours following your workout.

-Perform cardio intervals on non-strength training days three times per week. Select your cardio method of choice. My favorite is 15 seconds of flat out, make you wanna die sprint on a bike (stationary or outdoor) followed by a 45 second recovery by lightly riding to let the heart rate slowly drop. Repeat until you have done about 20 min. worth of exercise.

TIP#3- Eat AND Hydrate Early and Often

-Eat immediately upon waking and then every two to four hours to starve fat and feed muscle.

-By continuously fueling your furnace, and eating some animal protein (meat, eggs, cheese, etc.) at every feeding, you'll also keep your metabolism revved up throughout the day and prevent overeating.

-Drink 2-4 cups of water immediately upon waking and then 1-2 cups of water every 2 hours, in addition to drinking 1-2 cups of water for every 15 minutes of activity. Basically, you should be consuming 1/2 of your body weight each day. So if you weigh 150 lbs., you need to be drinking at least 75 oz. of water daily.

TIP#4- When It Comes to Carbs, Think FIber

-Eat an unlimited amount of fibrous, cruciferous green veggies to fill your belly both during and between meals (limiting corn, peas, carrots, beets, and potatoes)

-For optimal fat-burning, try to limit fruit and other carbohydrate consumption to within one to three hours post-workout. That's the time when your body best tolerates starches and sugars.

-The Carb Reduction Blueprint:

Step#1- Replace all white carbs with 100% whole grain carbs and all refined sugars with natural sugars

Step#2- Limit all whole grain starch and natural sugar consumption to within 1-2 hours post-workout or immediately upon waking for breakfast

Step#3- Replace all starches and sugars with fruits and veggies

Step#4- Replace all fruits with green veggies

TIP#5- Focus on Stabilization Exercise for Flat Abs

-Integrated total body training and sound nutrition is the key to burning the fat covering your abdominal muscles so you can “see” them- spot reduction doesn’t work!

-Core stabilization, both static and dynamic, is the key to developing rock hard abs, preventing injuries, and improving posture- STOP with the endless amounts of crunches and sit-ups! All your doing is reinforcing poor posture.

-The pillar collectively consists of your shoulders, hips, and core. It is your body’s powerhouse, foundational to all movement.

-For maximum benefits, you must seek to maintain a tight pillar position during all movements by actively pulling your navel to your spine, engaging your glutes, and maintaining a straight line from the heels through the shoulders.

TIP#6- Be a Flexible Eater

-Allot yourself 1 or 2 “reward meals” per week where you can enjoy the indulgences of college life in MODERATION as needed!

-Be sure to plan your reward meals in advance based on your weekly schedule and be sure to earn them with compliance at all other times!

TIP#7- Take These 2 daily Supplements for Life

-Daily Multi-Vitamin for Your Gender

-Daily EFA/Fish Oil Supplement

TIP#8- If you Booze, you WON’T Lose!

-How much damage? A 12-ounce beer contains about 0.6 ounces of alcohol. If you consumed 5 of these, your body would be inhibited from fat burning for up to 6 hours. This is aside from the fact that your body will actually be storing fat during these 6 hours! The more you drink, the longer your body is inhibited from burning fat in addition to a greater fat build up from excess acetyl CoA. As you can see, one day of binge drinking can set you back days if not a full week when it comes to fat loss!

-What’s the worst-case scenario? Mixing alcohol with sugary beverages promotes even further fat gain due to the resulting insulin surge that triggers fat storage (e.g. regular beer or cocktails mixed with regular soda and/or fruit juice)

If you must drink:

a.) Choose wine or hard liquor and “light” beer

b.) Limit alcohol consumption to 1-2 days per week with a 1-2 drink per day max

TIP#9- Sleep, Stretch, and Self-Massage

-Sleep: Get at least 6-7 hours (ideally 7-8) of restful sleep per night and take 1-2 hour naps to fill in the gaps. Establish a pre-bed routine and avoid caffeine after 2 pm.

-Stretch: Ideally perform Dynamic Stretching to preferentially mobilize joints BEFORE exercise and perform Static Stretching to preferentially lengthen muscles AFTER exercise

-Self-Massage: Spend at least 30-60 seconds massaging sore and tight areas of the body before and after you exercise to regenerate your muscle and connective tissue in order to prevent nagging aches and pains in the joints

TIP#10- Learn the basics of how to design your very own workout

To keep It simple, you should look at movements as opposed to body parts. Don't look at the program as a chest exercise, leg exercise, or arm exercises. You should be looking for movements such as an upper body horizontal push (push up), upper body vertical push (military press), upper body horizontal pull (seated rows), upper body vertical pull (pull up's), knee dominant (squats/deadlifts), and hip dominant (Romanian Deadlifts). Just start to think about movement as opposed to specific body parts. If you stick to these movements, you'll hit every muscle in the body.

It's Go Time ;-D

Jared Woolever