Dear Friend,

In this sample of the Tip of the Week, we have 3 excellent articles from just a few of our regular contributors - all of whom are experts in their respective fields.

First off, Chris Mohr is here to discuss the best methods for staying fit on the road - a definite hurdle for those of us whose jobs take them away from home from time to time, making it difficult to maintain a steady fitness and nutrition regimen. Next up, Dr. Clay Hyght has designed a training program for people who don't want to have to choose between increasing muscle mass and building strength. His way, you can do both! And last - but certainly not least - Dr. Kara Gallagher is here to discuss the natural "cues" in our everyday enviroment, how they effect our behavior and eating habits, and what you can do about it.

If you like what you read, be sure to click the link below and register for my Lean Body Coaching Club, absolutely FREE. You'll be glad you did.

Traveler's Workout & Diet Plan

by Christopher R. Mohr, PhD, RD

Packing on slabs of muscle is easy for those who have all the time in the world to train, eat, and rest. Unfortunately, 1% of us fall into that category. The question then arises as to what to do for those of us who are "running" on the corporate treadmill that keeps increasing in speed.

Admit it, you've fallen prey to corporate work hours, your significant other may complain you are not spending enough time with the kids, you are consistently traveling for work, your nutrition has gone to pot, and frankly, you are beaten by life. Does this scenario sound familiar? Well now it's time to do something before your washboard turns into a bowl full of jelly.

Your goal when you travel should be to maintain or improve your physique. Although most hotels these days have at least some rudimentary exercise equipment, sometimes weights aren't always available when you travel. Fortunately, there's a workout for you too. Weights aren't crucial to improving your physique; let's take a look at some exercises that can not only maintain your hard earned muscle, but even improve your physique. If nothing else, it's a great way to add some variety (even if you are still using a gym). Here are some workouts that you can do without a weight room:

Workout A

Walking lunges across hotel room floor (at least 10 repetitions for each leg)

Superset with

25 pushups with hands shoulder with apart

Repeat set 3 times
- - - - -

Duck walks (squat into the lowest comfortable position and walk forward from one side of the hotel room to the other. Continue walking repeatedly for 30 seconds. Stand to shake out the legs and repeat 3 times)

Superset with

25 pushups with hands in a triangle position
- - - - -

Leap Frog (you don't need to ask your co-worker to play with you; this can be done across the room on your own. Squat as low as possible, leap (without hitting your head on the ceiling). Do so across room.

Superset with

Bodyweight triceps extensions (place your hands on the dresser or other stable furniture with your feet about 4 feet away from the furniture [the lower the furniture and further away the feet, the more difficult the exercise]). Lower your head by only bending your elbows (thinking of upside down skull crushers). Return to starting position.
- - - - -

Workout B

Military pushups (this if for the more advanced. Get into a handstand with feet against the wall or with friend holding your feet. Lower your body towards the ground and pushup to starting position). Complete 10 repetitions.

Superset with

Rear delt lifts (lying on back with arms out to side (making a cross with body and arms). Bend arms at elbow so fingertips are pointing towards the ceiling. Raise your upper body keeping only elbows and butt touching the floor---for the more advanced, raise the entire body off the floor). 10 repetitions

One leg deadlifts (raise one foot off the ground and behind the body. Squat down as low as possible until back leg is just above the floor. You may have to hold onto something for balance to start). Repeat 10 repetitions on each leg

Superset with

The Plank (keep only feet and forearms on the ground; raise body off the ground keeping your body in a straight line). Hold for 25 seconds

Nutrition on the Go

So now you've accomplished your exercise goal for the day, but what are you going to eat? With my schedule I'll be traveling from the last weekend in September basically straight through the first weekend of November, with some short stays at home. Hotel food gets redundant. It's hard to encounter a restaurant that can cater to a healthy guy's lifestyle. You have to get creative.

If you travel regularly, I have a few suggestions.

First, pack some MRP's and a shaker bottle. Second, pack some high quality nutrition bars; the new Rockin' Roll and Lean Body Cookie bars Labrada has recently launched are second to none. Third, if it's a long flight, pack some fruit; the tiny bag of pretzels the airlines give you won't do much to stave off hunger and catabolism for long flights.

I recently flew to across the country so had several whole grain bars in my bag, two apples, a baggie of mixed nuts, and a ziplock back for "garbage." I ate as soon as possible before the plane took off and ate soon after we landed. You can also have a shaker bottle full of water, then dump in a Lean Body MRP, to give you a nice dose of protein; don't mind the stares you may get on the plane, they are merely from jealous folks who are "enjoying" their liquid sugar from the beverage carts. If you don't want to do any mixing, a Lean Body Ready to Drink Shake is the ticket. Just pop the top and drink!

The plane ride is now over, but what do you do the rest of the trip to not ruin your entire physique? First, locate a grocery store nearby your hotel. Second, make a trip to the grocery store and buy some non-perishable foods such as bananas, apples, granola bars, and instant oatmeal. If the hotel offers a refrigerator, then you can buy refrigerated items such as nonfat yogurt or even egg whites in a carton. If your room has a microwave, you can cook the egg whites and throw in a couple of packets of oatmeal as a side for a quick, no hassle meal that's great for you.

No matter how busy your schedule, there is always time to eat well and train. It just takes a little planning. While the conditions may not be ideal, and you may feel a bit out of your normal routine or pattern, throwing up your hands and giving up will do nothing more than cause you to quickly get out of shape, decrease your work performance, and leave you feeling sorry for yourself. Make the time to eat and train right-you'll be glad you did!

For more tips, be sure to check out Lee Labrada's new book, The Lean Body Promise, available wherever books are sold, or online at www.leanbodypromise.com.

Chris Mohr, PhD, RD received his PhD in exercise physiology where his research focus was on the treatment and prevention of overweight and obesity. He is also a registered dietitian and is the president of Mohr Results, a company that provides consultations to individuals and corporations.

For more information, contact him at chris@MohrResults.com.

Blending Size and Strength

by Dr. Clay Hyght, DC, CSCS

Do you want to gain some lean muscle mass or do you want to get stronger? Typically you have to choose between these two goals when deciding how to train - but not any more! I've designed a program specifically for those of us who want to get both bigger and stronger at the same time.

The Size and Strength Conundrum

Conventional training wisdom tells us that training for size and training for strength are two very separate entities. The combination of heavy weight and lower reps (1-5) is unanimously king for producing maximal strength gains. The key here is high tension placed on the muscle.

Getting experts to agree upon what, exactly, is best for inducing hypertrophy (growth) is a bit more elusive. However, it's fairly well accepted that somewhere between 10 and 20 reps is best for inducing skin-stretching gains in size. The cornerstone of hypertrophy training is to put the muscles through a high volume of training.

Typically, most well-designed routines will have some degree of periodization to them. For example, remember my Big and Strong in '04 article published right here in the Lean Body Coach? I recommended that you train with heavy weight and low reps for a few weeks followed by lighter weight and higher reps for another few weeks.

Though there's certainly nothing inherently wrong with this, I have found that (though the end result is satisfactory) size doesn't improve very fast when training for strength; and strength doesn't improve when training for size, in fact it sometimes goes down a bit. Call me impatient, but I want to improve both at the same time. To appease my impatience, I brainstormed a bit to come up with a workout that implements high tension to optimize strength and high volume to maximize size gains - all within the same week. The program is elegantly simple, but don't let that fool you. The results you will achieve will be astonishing.

Heavy Day, Light Day

To get your strength on its way up, you're going to train each body part with one heavy day per week. And, to fill out your shirts better you're going to train each body part with one high rep day per week. That's right; you are going to train each body part twice per week. I know this flies in the face of the popular "train each body part once per week" dogma that currently prevails, but oh well.

Without further ado, let's get right to the program.

Monday: Heavy Upper Body

1a) Barbell Bench Press 6 x 3 (6 sets of 3 reps)
1b) T-bar Row 6 x 3
2a) Standing Barbell Shoulder Press 5 x 5
2b) Pull-ups 5 x 5 (you may use an assisted pull-up machine or do pull-downs if you're not yet strong enough to do pull-ups with your bodyweight)
3a) Skull Crushers 3 x 5
3b) Barbell Curls 3 x 5

Tuesday: Light Lower Body and Abs

1) Unilateral Leg Press 3 x 15-20
2) Lying Leg Curls 3 x 15-20
3) Dumbbell Walking Lunges 2 x 30
4) Seated Calf Raises 3 x 20
5) Crunches 3 x Failure

Wednesday: Off

Thursday: Light Upper Body

1a) Inclined Barbell Press 3 x 15
1b) DB Rows 3 x 15
2a) DB Lateral Raise 3 x 1
2b) Pull-downs to the front 3 x 15
3a) Preacher Curls 2 x 15
3b) OH DB extensions 2 x 15

Friday: Heavy Lower Body and Abs

1) Barbell Squats 6 x 4
2) Rack Deadlifts 1 x 8, 1 x 6, 1 x 4, 1 x 2
3) Dumbbell Stiff-legged Deadlifts 3 x 6
4) Standing Calf Raises 5 x 5
5) Hanging Leg Raises 3 x 8

Saturday: Off

Sunday: Off

Tying it all Together

The prescribed number of sets does not include warm-up sets. Make sure to warm up properly, but avoid needlessly fatiguing yourself prior to your upcoming work sets. Usually one or two light sets does the trick.

Exercises that are labeled A & B are to be done one after the other. For example, do a set of barbell bench presses, wait about one minute, then do a set of T-bar rows, wait another minute, then do another set of bench presses and so on.

In order to reduce the risk of overtraining, I've made it such that you'll only train four days per week. To further reduce the risk of overdoing it, make sure to not do any forced repetitions (reps that a spotter helps you complete). On the heavy day, you should be able to complete your last repetition with good form. On the light day, stop a rep or two short of failure. Holding back from going absolutely all out is something that's tough for me to do, and it may be for you, too. But I assure you, your patience will pay off in the way of steady muscle gains.

One of the most important, yet simplest ways to ensure your steady progress is to keep a training log. Keeping meticulous records allows you to intelligently plan the progression in your workout. As a general rule of thumb, try to improve (either five more pounds or one more rep) every other workout for a particular exercise. Trying to improve every workout would soon lead to stagnation and even regression, both of which you want to avoid like a Brittany Spears TV show!

Doing this routine for 12 weeks is sure to give you newfound size and strength. After adhering to the program for three months, take a week off. Then you could repeat the program but with the incorporation of different exercises.

Feel free to contact me at DrClay.com to let me know how the program works for you. I would love to hear your success stories. You can also keep up with how I progress on virtually the exact same routine.

Till next time - Dr Clay

"Dr. Clay" is a Strength and Conditioning specialist and personal trainer, as well as a Doctor of Chiropractic. He designs training and nutrition programs for some of bodybuilding's top athletes and is a regular contributor to various publications. His passions include fitness modeling, professional bodybuilding competition, and sharing his education and fitness experience with others.

Contact Dr. Clay at www.drclay.com

The Cues That Bind

by Kara Gallagher, PhD, FACSM

Ahh, it's springtime! Plants are in bloom, days are longer, and it's time to reflect on. work to be done? Wait a second, this article started so well. But honestly, do you have some things in your life that need a little "dusting off," so to speak? I'm not talking about your coffee table; how about your eating habits and exercise program? If your New Year's Resolutions are collecting dust somewhere on a 'good intention' shelf, then it's time to get to work! Remember, beach season is just around the corner, which means it's time to shed some clothes; you don't want to have "winter's insulation," to expose, do you?

A common concept in the area of psychology and behavior change is known as stimulus control. Stimulus control refers to cues (stimuli) in our environment that encourage us toward specific behaviors. These cues can be subtle (a TV commercial for your favorite snack food), but aren't always (e.g., the smell of chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven). Either of these cues can make you forget your commitment to a healthier eating plan. Thankfully, all cues are not negative. Take for example a bowl of fresh fruit on the countertop or a refrigerator stocked with fresh vegetables. These cues are much more likely to remind you of your healthy eating plan.

Cues in the environment can also affect your exercise program. For example, there has surely been a time you skipped a workout because a more appealing option was offered to you. That's a negative stimulus. How about those dreary, rainy Mondays when you don't feel like getting out of bed to exercise? You've got it, a negative stimulus again. The problem with these cues is that they are so strongly linked to years of learned behavior, you unconsciously respond without even realizing it! Fortunately, you can break these bad habits and regain control of your behaviors to get back on the track to healthy success!

1. Identify the negative stimuli that are affecting you.
2. Clean up negative cues.
3. Eliminate or replace negative cues with more positive ones.

Step 1: Identify: take an honest look at your surroundings. Walk through your house or apartment. Focus on subtle negative signals that you may not have realized were present.

. Do you keep food in any room besides the kitchen?

. Is there a snack drawer in the office or candy dish in the living room/family room?

. If you have any exercise equipment in your home, is it buried under clothes or boxes? As you walk through each room, identify the stimuli and associated behaviors you have had a hard time trying to change. For example, do you snack while watching TV, or every time you walk through the kitchen? These things can be changed; in this example, you have to consider 1) what behavior is occurring (snacking) and 2) what is linked to the behavior (sofa and watching TV after dinner).

Step 2: "Clean up" negative cues in each of the following rooms:

The Kitchen

The kitchen is the by far the worst location for negative eating cues. When "spring cleaning" the kitchen, remember the cliché "Out of sight, out of mind." If tempting, high fat, high calorie foods in the house are a must have, they should not be visible. But before you automatically put them away in the 'junk food cabinet', consider this cabinet's affect on your behavior as well. Most houses have them. It's the place you turn to when you're looking for a snack, the first place the kids open when they come home from school hungry, etc. "The cabinet" contains all foods easy to reach, easy to snack on, and more likely than not, most likely to sabotage your diet. If eliminating "the cabinet" and its high calorie items is not possible, consider moving it. Pick an out of reach, less accessible cabinet or drawer in the kitchen and switch the items in each location. The next time you unconsciously open "the cabinet" just because, instead of finding a pantry full of high calorie foods, you'll be faced with something different such as storage containers or spices. This alone will provide a mental cue that you intentionally wanted to break this habit, and may lead you to choose a healthier snack, or forget the snack altogether.

Next, check the countertops. Do you see tempting foods out in the open? Make the switch from clear storage containers to opaque ones so food is not visible. Anytime you walk past food that is visible, you receive a cue for food and eating. This does not mean you will act on that cue every time, but the more frequently you are cued, the more likely you are to act.

The Living Room/Family Room

Now take a walk through the rest of your house. Think about your typical habits. Does walking into the living room entice you to sit in "your" favorite seat on the sofa or chair and turn on the TV? If so, make some changes. Rearrange the furniture or make a conscious effort to sit someplace else when you watch TV to break this learned pattern of behavior. If you own exercise equipment such as a treadmill or bike, don't keep it hidden in the corners of your house as a clothes hanger or storage unit, move it to a key location such as the living or family room. By having exercise equipment in an enjoyable location, you are more likely to use it regularly.

The Bedroom

Think about your normal morning and evening routine. Eliminate the things that stall your commitment to exercise. If you typically hit the snooze button on the alarm clock instead of getting out of bed to exercise, move the clock. Place it in a location in the bedroom where you have to get out of bed to turn it off. Do you find it difficult to keep track of your exercise clothes and shoes? Organize your exercise clothes in a drawer or section of the closet so they are easily accessible. Create a place to keep your exercise shoes so you can always find them.

Step 3: Eliminate and replace negative cues with positive cues

Here are a few ways to put some of what you learned into practice and replace negative cues with more positive ones in each room of the house:

. In the kitchen, restock the refrigerator so you are faced with healthy options when you open the refrigerator door. Keep fresh cut vegetables, and yogurt on the top shelf and move high-fat, high calorie foods and leftovers to the bottom of the back shelf.

. Place a bowl of fresh fruit on the countertop in place of a candy dish or cookie jar.

. In the living room, keep exercise videos beside the television.

. Order a subscription to a health or fitness magazine or keep copies of the Lean Body Newsletter on the coffee table as a source of motivation.

. Hang an exercise/diet calendar in a visible location and check each day that you exercised and ate well. Seeing a month full of check marks can be a powerful reminder of your commitment to a healthier lifestyle.

. In the bedroom, pack your gym bag or even wear your workout clothes to bed to give you a little extra encouragement to exercise the next day or first thing in the morning.

Summary

We are influenced by our surrounding environment. That does not have to mean your environment dictates your behavior, though. Do periodic sweeps of your environment to make sure you do not let old, unhealthy cues and behaviors find their way back into your lifestyle. To clean house, you just need to remember to 1) identify, 2) clean up, and 3) remove and replace, to create a clean fresh start to a healthier you!

Dr. Gallagher is an assistant professor of exercise physiology in the Dept of Health and Sport Sciences at the University of Louisville. Her research and expertise is in the area of behavioral weight loss interventions and strategies to improve exercise participation.