Josef Brandenburg • February 22, 2016

Celebrity bodies on the red carpet are a combination of fact and fiction. On the one hand, many of the celebrities use smart nutrition and exercise to stay in great shape. But nearly all of the images from the red carpet are also painstakingly created illusions.

UNREAL: Starvation and dehydration. To look amazing on the red carpet often involves days or weeks of starvation-level dieting and dehydration. Using herbs or prescription drugs to boost dehydration makes you look very lean and tight, but it is also very unhealthy.

REAL: Skip the treadmill. According to celebrity trainer Valerie Waters (she’s trained Jennifer Garner and many others), her clients are very busy — especially during a shoot — so they only have time to focus on a combination of strength and interval training.

UNREAL: Retouched photos. A-list celebrities have a retouch artist on staff to make sure that no photo of them is published un-touched. Rolls and cellulite, wrinkles and imperfections disappear; thigh gaps and muscle tone are added. This creates unrealistic standards of “fit and beautiful.”

REAL: Kettlebells. Hollywood has been a hotbed of kettlebell training for over a decade. Celebrities are drawn to it because it’s incredibly time-efficient, great for fat loss and very safe if you have good instruction on the fundamentals.

UNREAL: Makeup magicians. A highly skilled makeup artist is like a real-time retouch artist who works on your face and body. He or she can make a lizard look like a model. This creates fantastic expectations about aging (meaning, they’re a fantasy).

REAL: Don’t drink your calories. Avoiding calorie-dense beverages such as juice, soda, sweet coffee, etc., helps to cut your empty-calorie intake. This is an essential component of improving your health and keeping weight off over time.

UNREAL: Waist trainers. These items come with the promise that they will change the shape of your body when you’re not wearing them. Completely false! However, while on, these garments will change the shape of your body — especially your midsection and butt. But (or butt) this is an illusion. Dangerously similar to the corsets of the 1800s, these garments put excessive pressure on your ribs and organs, making it very difficult to breathe.

A best-selling author and fitness expert, Josef Brandenburg owns True 180 Fitness in Georgetown. Information about his 14-Day Personal Training Experience may be found at true180.fitness.
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Josef Brandenburg • February 18, 2016

On Instagram or at your gym, you may have seen someone wearing what looks like a hazmat mask. These masks — altitude training masks — aren’t worn to combat poor air quality. Instead, they promise to simulate training at high altitudes (where the air is thin) to boost athletic performance.

Let’s look at fact vs. fiction.

“The mask simulates training at high altitudes.” Fiction. The mask can’t simulate training at high altitudes because it can’t change the percentage of oxygen available in the air you are breathing. The changes that take place when you live at a high altitude are primarily due to the low oxygen level.

“The mask makes it hard to breathe.” Fact. Wearing one reminds me of the asthma attacks I had as a child. Making inhaling more difficult causes your body to rely more on your neck and shoulder muscles to assist with breathing. This can lead to headaches and to neck and shoulder pain.

“The mask will boost your performance.” Fiction. Performance boosts require months of living at a high altitude. Even if the masks could change the level of available oxygen, you would need to wear one 24 hours a day — not just when you work out — to benefit.

“The mask causes you to do less during a workout.” Fact. The mask reduces the intensity of a workout. Because the mask makes it so hard to breathe, it makes everything harder. For example, if you could normally do three sets of 15 pushups, then wearing the mask would limit you to only 10 to 12 pushups per set. Doing less work during your workouts will lead to less fitness and worse results over time.

A best-selling author and fitness expert, Josef Brandenburg owns True 180 Fitness in Georgetown. Information about his 14-Day Personal Training Experience may be found at true180.fitness.

Josef Brandenburg • December 8, 2015

Remember: You can’t give the gift of fitness to someone who doesn’t want it. Giving a fitness gift to someone you think should work out is likely to backfire. But with these gifts you can support your friends and family members who have already made their own decision to pursue fitness — even if they’re just starting out.

A glass water bottle. Staying hydrated is great, but plastic isn’t. There’s significant evidence that plastic — even BPA (Bisphenol A) free — has harmful effects on your health and weight. Glass and stainless steel are the way to go. BKR makes glass water bottles that are really cute and really durable. You can find them at Georgetown University Bookstore and Georgetown Running Company.

My Zone. Wearable technology, especially for tracking movement, is hot, but most of the devices out there don’t give you feedback beyond how many steps you took while walking or running. They offer hardly any accurate data on intensity or calories burned outside of those two activities. My Zone makes movement measurable. It uses a very accurate heart rate monitor to let you know how hard you’re working relative to your own fitness levels.

A good sports bra. I used to wonder why some female clients would hug themselves during any bouncing exercises. It turns out that a well-designed, well-made sports bra is hard to find, and very important for a good workout. I’ve received a lot of positive feedback about the many different brands and helpful staff at Athleta. A gift certificate to the Georgetown store would probably be best.
Better nutrition. I see two options for gifts. One is a membership to a local CSA (community-supported agriculture network), which generally runs $25 to $100 per week. Getting fresh, organic fruits and veggies delivered to your recipient’s door helps him or her eat better. The other is a gift certificate to work with a local nutritionist, such as Julie DiBella at justbewellhealth.com.

Body work. Massage isn’t just for when something hurts or you’re feeling overwhelmed. You’ll get much more out of it if it’s part of your regular lifestyle. There are two ways to take advantage of the mental and physical benefits: self-massage and seeing a professional. For self-massage, pick up a foam roller from Georgetown Running Company and you can loosen up most parts of your body on your own schedule. But self-massage has its limits. Luckily Georgetown has some of the area’s best massage offerings at Aveda and M3 Massage, both of which have holiday gift-certificate specials.

A best-selling author and fitness expert, Josef Brandenburg owns True 180 Fitness in Georgetown. Information about his 14-Day Personal Training Experience may be found at true180.fitness. [gallery ids="102176,132253" nav="thumbs"]

Josef Brandenburg • October 26, 2015

Did you know that the average American gets sick two to four times per year? And we tend to stay sick for seven to 10 days. That’s an entire month spent feeling tired, achy and miserable.

The good news is that working out three days per week is one of the most powerful tools for prevention and a speedy recovery. The even better news is that the time you invest in your own fitness (156 hours or six and a half days) is much less than the time you’d spend being sick (960 hours or 40 days).
Why does it work? There are several theories.

One explanation is that the full, deep breathing helps to flush out your lungs so that pathogens don’t get too much time to set up camp. Another is that reasonable exercise helps to balance stress hormones such as cortisol. When cortisol is too high for too long, it suppresses immune function. A third is that exercise increases the proportion of what are called your regulatory T-cells. T-cells — a type of white blood cell — fight infection, and this increase makes your immune system better at keeping you well.

But here’s what not to do. In fitness right now, the fad is “harder and longer” — pushing until you collapse or can’t keep going. While hard work is important, there is too much of a good thing. Excessively intense or long workouts increase your risk of injury and suppress your immune system (because they stimulate excessive cortisol production). Keep your workouts under an hour, and leave something in the tank.

Should you work out when you’re sick? If your symptoms are above the neck, then, yes, you can work out. The workout will probably boost your immune function and suppress microbial growth. But remember to listen to your body and keep your intensity relative to your energy. And don’t forget to wash your hands! However, if you have below-the-neck symptoms — diarrhea, vomiting, fever, etc. — then hold off until they run their course.

A best-selling author and fitness expert, Josef Brandenburg owns True 180 Fitness in Georgetown. Information about his 14-Day Personal Training Experience may be found at true180.fitness.

Josef Brandenburg • September 17, 2015

Most people have an energy lull in the afternoon. This is an opportunity either to improve or to (unfortunately) reduce your health and fitness. Marketers try selling blended caramel coffee drinks that have two candy bars’ worth of sugar and energy shooters that are the nutritional equivalent of soda.

These high-sugar “solutions” will pep you up for the moment, but they will put you on a blood-sugar rollercoaster. Also, the long-term metabolic impact of these kinds of foods can lead to progressive exhaustion and weight gain.

Here are five healthy alternatives:

1. Get 10 minutes of sunlight. Get moving and help your internal clock remember that you should be awake right now.

2. Check your lunch. If you’re sleepy after lunch, then the content and/or the quantity of your lunch isn’t supporting you. Focus on veggies and healthy fat and protein and skip the starch and sugar.

3. Sprint the stairs. If you’re on the second floor, then run as fast as you can up to the fifth-floor restroom. Nothing saps your energy more than sitting on your butt. Intense exercise stimulates your body to release its own natural supply of stimulants, getting you back into high gear.

4. Caffeinate with caution. Moderate amounts of caffeine aren’t usually a problem — unless you drink a caffeinated beverage too late in the day and your sleep is disrupted. Most people have a cutoff for caffeine between 2 and 4 p.m. in order to sleep well.

5. Stay hydrated. People confuse thirst with “I need a nap” and “I’m hungry.” Staying adequately hydrated helps you feel great, maintain focus and lose weight. Super-cold water is also a nice jolt, similar to the stair sprints. Hot weather, air conditioning and lots of talking all dry you out. Keep a water bottle near you.
You can sum it all up as follows: Eat a better lunch. Move. Get sunlight. Hydrate and (maybe) caffeinate.

A best-selling author and fitness expert, Josef Brandenburg owns True 180 Fitness in Georgetown. Information about his 14-Day Personal Training Experience may be found at true180.fitness.

Josef Brandenburg • August 17, 2015

For many, an invitation to a summer BBQ can feel like a choice between having fun and staying fit. Luckily, fun and fit are not mutually exclusive. Here are five ways to keep your hard-earned results without slimming down your social calendar.

1. Skip the sugar water. Juice, soda and sweet tea have more sugar than many desserts. Not only are the calories from sugar especially hard on your metabolism, but the fact that they’re liquid means they won’t make you feel full. Stick to unsweetened tea, soda water with lime or plain water.

2. Beware of the sides. At most BBQs, the side dishes will make or break your meal from a nutrition standpoint. Steer clear of the obvious: chips, mac and cheese, sweet “salads.” Instead, load your first plate with veggies and protein. You’ll soon feel full and you’ll keep feeling great.

3. Don’t show up empty-handed. A simple way to make sure the right side-dish options are on hand, while being a great guest, is to bring them with you. Find out what the host will be serving and see how you can honor your nutrition plan, your taste buds and the menu.

4. Pick your battles. One of the keys to having your cake and eating it too is deciding in advance when you’ll treat yourself and when you won’t. It’s much easier to say “no” to today’s mediocre casserole when you know you’ll be saying “yes” to next week’s amazing bread pudding. And by not waiting to decide, you’ll save your brain some decision fatigue.

5. Empty the tank. A session of strength or interval training (or one of each) before you decide to treat yourself will help your body metabolize the extra carbs. This is because “emptying the tank” of your muscles (glycogen stores) improves the function of hormones such as insulin. These hormones tell your body if it should send your food to your fat cells or somewhere else. You want the later.

A best-selling author and fitness expert, Josef Brandenburg owns True 180 Fitness in Georgetown. Information about his 14-Day Personal Training Experience may be found at true180.fitness.

Josef Brandenburg •

This summer, D.C.-area residents have the opportunity to try something new and help raise $10,000 for the Africa Yoga Project. Down Dog Yoga is hosting a guest instructor from Nairobi, Walter Mugwe, and will donate the proceeds from some of its classes and workshops to the organization.

AYP “educates, empowers, elevates and employs youth from Africa using the transformational practice of yoga.” In other words, AYP finds young people in Africa who have a passion for yoga and provides training and jobs for them as yoga instructors.
Mugwe, who has been invited to teach classes at the Yoga Journal Conference, first met AYP co-founder Paige Ellison when he was 17 years old. He says, “Yoga changed my life, and opened up doors that I would never have imagined possible when I was a youth in the slums.” Today he supports himself and his family as an AYP yoga instructor.

Down Dog Yoga is donating the proceeds from its $5 Flow classes at the Clarendon location and all the proceeds from its Neo-Afro Yoga Beat Jam, Down Dog’s most popular and successful workshop. Recently held in Georgetown, the $40 Neo-Afro workshop will be at the Bethesda location on Aug. 8 from 8 to 10 p.m. For details and to register, visit downdogyoga.com.

Josef Brandenburg • July 16, 2015

Have you ever wondered what difference it makes if you a skip a workout — or a week or even a month’s worth? The facts are surprising and motivating:

Day 2: Your mood and your energy head south because your body’s endorphin and adrenalin levels have also started to drop. These chemicals are natural appetite suppressants, so your appetite begins to increase.

Day 3: Your heart and lungs are five percent less fit. Your muscles are noticeably stiffer. Day 7: Your metabolism has declined some 10 percent, matching the shrinkage in your ability to use oxygen. Your body needs oxygen to burn calories. Energy levels are even lower than on Day 2.

Day 14: Your body has begun “negative recomposition,” the process of simultaneously losing muscle and gaining fat. By now, your heart and lungs are 15 percent less fit.

Day 21: Your metabolism is down sharply because your body’s ability to use oxygen has declined by 20 percent. Along with making weight and fat gain more likely, this also lowers your energy levels.

Day 25: You’ve lost 10 to 15 percent of your muscle mass. If the scale reads the same, this means that you’ve replaced your muscle with an equal weight of fat (and fat occupies more space than muscle).

Day 29: Your strength levels have dropped by up to 30 percent.

As you can see, a lot can change in just a month. Here’s a simple yet powerful strategy to help you be more consistent with your fitness: Be specific. Instead of saying, “I’ll work out three times this week,” try, “I’m going to work out at my studio on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 10 a.m.” Research shows that doing it this way makes you 220 percent more likely to follow through. You’ve given your brain a specific target and made a decision instead of putting it off.

Putting off making a decision, such as when and where you will exercise, induces something called “decision fatigue,” which depletes your willpower and makes exercise far more difficult than it needs to be.

A best-selling author and fitness expert with 16 years of experience, Josef Brandenburg owns The Body You Want club in Georgetown. Information about his 14-Day Personal Training Experience may be found at TheBodyYouWant.com.

Josef Brandenburg • June 22, 2015

Peak vacation season for Washingtonians is upon us. While these trips are essential, they can also jeopardize all the work of the past winter and spring. These five strategies can help you have a great vacation while maintaining your recent progress.

Strategy #1: The early bird gets the burn. Vacations are spontaneous, and opportunities for fun tend to pop up with little warning. The simplest way to have fun without sacrificing fitness is to make your workout the first thing you do each day. Get it out of the way and nothing else can get in the way.

Strategy #2. Pack a portable gym. You can fit an entire gym in your carry-on bag without going overweight, if you pack smart. Pack Valslides for upper body, core and leg workouts; a lacrosse ball to roll stress knots out of your hips and shoulders from too-long sitting; a resistance band for additional arm, leg and core exercises; and a jump rope for great conditioning work anywhere.

Strategy #3. Stick to a few simple rules. Keep a short list of simple, but realistic rules to keep your nutrition on track. A simple rule might be: one-or-none for alcohol (either have one drink or no drinks). A realistic rule could be limiting yourself to one small treat at dinner, or only having dessert every other day (a “treat” being defined as something you wouldn’t normally eat).

Strategy #4. Initiate something active. There are obvious activities, like walking or biking, but there are plenty of fun active things to do, too, like bodysurfing, going to a water park or playing beach volleyball. Whatever you do, if you really get into it you’ll get a much better workout — and have a blast.

Strategy #5. Remember your priorities. The main thing on vacation is spending quality time with friends and family — not seeing how much weight you can lose in a week, which isn’t going to be much anyway. As far as fitness goes, success is maintaining (or not losing much) ground. A week is plenty of time to do a lot of damage if you don’t practice a little bit of discipline.

A best-selling author and fitness expert with 16 years of experience, Josef Brandenburg owns The Body You Want club in Georgetown. Information about his 14-Day Personal Training Experience may be found at TheBodyYouWant.com.

Josef Brandenburg • May 21, 2015

The shift toward more intense exercise began as a great idea for most people. It led people to realize that walking on a treadmill while watching TV won’t help with weight loss, strength, bone density or even cardiovascular fitness.

Strength training and interval training deliver far superior results, and massively improve your quality of life, but only if done responsibly. Unfortunately, the most popular forms of intense exercise have taken a great idea too far, turning it into something that can be dangerous.

To help you get the great results without the risk, here are five dos and don’ts for intense exercise:

Don’t make exercise a competition. Exercise is something you do to enhance your life and your sports, but it’s not the end goal. Vying to see who can do the most exercise leads to sloppy form and extreme exhaustion, which then lead to injuries and health problems.

Do challenge yourself. Your body will only change – become more toned, expend more energy (lose weight), add muscle, add bone density – if it’s progressively overloaded. If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you.

Don’t train to failure. Pushing until you can’t move is taking the above idea too far. End your set of exercises knowing that you could have done one or two more repetitions. This is challenge that you can recover from. You only get better in between workouts (while recovering).

Do remember the three Ps. At my studio, we have three Ps: no pain, puking or passing out. Exercise should challenge you, but never hurt, make you nauseous or make you feel dizzy or faint.

Don’t do plyometrics for cardio. A recent trend in DVDs and fitness classes is to take very stressful jumping exercises and do them as a 30-to-60-minute class. To put this in perspective, Olympic athletes limit their plyometric work to fewer than 100 reps per week (or 20 minutes including rest), because exceeding these limits puts you at high risk for stress fractures and tendon ruptures.

*A best-selling author and fitness expert with 16 years of experience, Josef Brandenburg owns The Body You Want club in Georgetown. Information about his 14-Day Personal Training Experience may be found at TheBodyYouWant.com.*