Total Gym

Total Gym 4th of July Sale!

We appreciate our social media fans, whether you follow us here on Total Gym Inside, on Facebook or Twitter! To thank you, we’ve put together an EXCLUSIVE offer on best-selling Total Gym XLS:

Now through July 5, take an ADDITIONAL 5% OFF Total Gym XLS – already discounted over 50%! Plus, get a FREE Ab Crunch accessory. Join the Total Gym family or upgrade your current model by clicking the image below. Use the code TGJuly4 at checkout to get your discount:

Accessorize this summer and add countless new exercises to your Total Gym repertoire. Now through July 5, receive 50% off Total Gym Accessories*. Reach optimal total-body conditioning with popular accessories like the SCRUNCH, Press Bar and more. Peruse our Accessory store by clicking the image below:

*Excludes Cyclo Trainer. Offers good in the U.S.

Core Fitness – Alleviating Pain in the Back

Hey Total Gym Friends,

Congrats to Rory McIIroy on a fabulous U.S. Open victory!  What a talent and performance.

Today’s blog is directed toward injury prevention for golfers but will benefit any athlete, weekend warrior or workout enthusiast.

A large percentage the golfers I have worked with complain of low back pain or fatigue during or after a round of golf. This is understandable as the golf swing and putting stance require a great deal of core strength during a four-hour round. Stretching and strengthening the lower back muscles can alleviate and eliminate such issues as well as give you more power and club head speed.  From experience, I see people tend to focus on the parts of the “core” that we can see in the mirror while neglecting the back muscles. Here are some Total Gym exercises to help strengthen the all-important back muscles:

THE SHAMU – In case you haven’t seen a SeaWorld Shamu show, when Shamu hits the deck his tail and head are lifted and the only thing touching the floor is his belly.

• Lying stomach down on your Total Gym with your head facing the tower, come up into an isometric pull-up position, where the arms are at a 90 degree bend.
• Deeply inhale with no movement – upon the exhale, lift the crown of your head towards the top of the tower and attempt to lift your thighs off the glideboard.  Inhale while moving back down and repeat.  Repeat focusing on form until fatigue.  Next – the counter stretch.

PILATES ROLLOVER – My clients love this lower back stretch and wonderful hamstring release. (see photo to the right). The beauty of doing this on the Total Gym is two-fold:

• It places less stress on the neck than a traditional Pilates rollover or yoga plow.
• You can position your feet on the squat stand to anchor your stretch, eventually dropping your feet lower on the squat stand as your flexibility increases.  Also, play with bending the knees in this position to increase the lower back stretch.

I hope you’re all having a great golfing summer!

Until next month – hit em’ straight!

JayDee Cutting is a GRAVITY Master Trainer, certified personal trainer, Pilates instructor and creator of the “Core Golf Fitness” program. JayDee’s Core Golf Fitness DVD offers on-course and warm-up exercises proven to help advance your golf game and is available for purchase at http://coregolffitness.com/.

New Total Gym Equipment – Basic Demonstration

Total Gym GRAVITY Master Trainers Rob Glick and Nicole Decker give a brief demonstration of the new Total Gym incline bodyweight trainers – Total Gym Sport, Total Gym GTS and Total Gym PowerTower.

Learn the various exercises that you can perform on a Total Gym, whether you are looking to improve your own health, a personal trainer working with clients of all fitness levels, a physical therapist or athletic trainer utilizing Total Gym for rehabilitation, conditioning or sports performance training.

Click here to watch the video on YouTube.

Total Gym can accommodate individuals and clients of every fitness level and athletic ability. For more information, visit http://totalgym.com/products/ or call 800-541-4900 to speak with a representative for additional details.

Total Gym … moving YOU since 1974!

Tara's Friday Bite: Artificial Sweeteners, Not So Sweet for Your Health

Since the introduction of the artificial sweetener in the 1970s, it has been riddled with controversy. Artificial sweetener has been credited for helping with weight loss but also blamed for everything from headaches to death. In order to understand the potential pros and cons of artificial sweeteners, it is important to step back to the time of the caveman and talk a bit about how your body works.

We are designed to sustain life and reproduce. Pain is associated with death and pleasure is associated with life. That’s why fire hurts and sleep feels good. From a dietary standpoint, we enjoy food highest in nutrients and calories – i.e. fat, sugar, starches, etc. When we get enough of these nutrients, we have hormones to turn off our hunger and cravings, which leaves us feeling satisfied.

Enter the world of artificial sweeteners. The main idea behind the “sweetener” is so you can get the sweet fix without the calories. Genius idea … but unfortunately it has not worked.

• The American Cancer Society found that out of 78,000 women, 7.1% of those who used artificial sweeteners gained weight compared to non-users.
• A San Antonio Heart Study followed 3,700 adults over 8 years and found that those who consumed more artificial sweeteners had higher BMIs (Body Mass Index), and the more they consumed the higher their BMI.

How could something that has zero calories cause weight gain? There are 3 schools of thought:

1. Artificial sugars increase sugar cravings. Your body associates calories with sweetness. When your body doesn’t get these calories, it becomes “starved” and causes you to eat more calories.
2. They damage the food-reward pathway that drives our desire to eat. The sweetness without calories approach of artificial sweeteners can ultimately cause an increase in sweet cravings.
3. Artificial sweeteners are thousands of times sweeter than sugar. With regular artificial sweetener use, our body gets used to the flavor and isn’t satisfied until it finds this level of sweetness. Unfortunately, this can’t be found in regular food, leaving us unsatisfied and prone to overeating.

Artificial sweeteners have been linked to everything from headaches to depression to cancer. Now, I could find just as many well-funded studies that say artificial sweeteners have absolutely no negative repercussions and encourage weight loss. The point of this article is not to scare you or bash an industry, but rather increase your awareness of what you are putting in your body.

The first step is to know when you are ingesting artificial sweeteners. First, if a product says zero sugars or calories and is not water, it most likely contains an artificial sweetener. Second, check the label. Look for the following artificial sweeteners: Saccharin, Aspartame, Sucralose, Acesulfame K or Neotame.

If you have any concerns, try taking artificial sweeteners out of your diet for a month and see what happens. Do you still have sugar cravings? Did you lose weight? Do you still have headaches? You are the best judge of the way something impacts your body. You may find that nothing changes, or you may be surprised that what you turned to for a calorie-free sweet fix may in fact be the very thing that was sabotaging your diet.

Stay tuned for Tara’s next column with advice about natural sweetener alternatives …

Tara Coleman www.taracoleman.com

Tara Coleman is a Clinical Nutritionist in San Diego, CA. She blogs twice a month with “Tara’s Friday Bite.” Leave us your comments with ideas for future topics or email Tara directly attara@taracoleman.com.

Total Gym Exclusive: Biggest Loser Tracey's Weight Loss Secret

We’re back with our third and final interview with former “Biggest Loser” contestant Tracey Yukich!!

Tracey chats with me about how she’s kept the weight off since leaving the show. Learn how she went from a size 22 and 250 pounds to a healthy 130 pounds. Here’s a hint: she did it with incline bodyweight resistance training:

Have you or your client experienced a significant weight loss? Your success story could be featured on this blog and inspire thousands of Total Gym fans! Please leave us a note in the Comments section below or email TotalGymBlog@totalgym.com.

Week 3: Get Your Body Summer Ready – Upper Body Challenge

Here we are … week 3 of our new 7-week exercise series to keep you motivated and fit this summer. Every Monday, we’ll introduce a new muscle group and exercises to include in your Total Gym workouts.

Today we’re focused on the shoulders and triceps. Total Gym Master Trainer Nicole Decker and I lead you through a challenging upper body workout that incorporates the core muscles. Ever tried static equilibrium on the Total Gym? What a way to really exhaust your muscles!! Take a look:

Click here to see this video on our Total Gym YouTube page and let us know your thoughts!

Total Gym on TV! Couples Get Closer (and Fitter) with Total Gym

The all new Total Gym Sport made its first TV debut in a major U.S. city on Wednesday! The Sport was featured on KUSI News San Diego as part of a segment about how exercise can help spice up relationships. You may remember the “Total Gym Workout Date” post by Dr. Michael Mantell – featured in the segment – on this very topic.

Here’s a thought … could working out on Total Gym help increase intimacy and possibly lower the divorce rate? Watch the clip to learn more:

Click here to see the video on the Total Gym YouTube channel.