Following tremendous growth in the past five years, personal training business Element 5 Fitness has become a proud member of the Fitness Revolution nation representing the Kirkland area.

To commemorate this partnership, Element 5 Fitness will be hosting a Grand Re-Opening party on Saturday, April 28, 2012 from 930am to 4pm which will include workout demos, workout challenge prizes for services and vendor products and more.

The cost of admission is free.

Co-Owners Belton Lubas and Rommel Ryan Acda attribute this opportunity to their members.

“We think it’s a testament to our members and the Fitness Revolution franchise that, even during a recession, we’re able to expand the reach of our business.”

Two months ago, Kirkland personal training team Element 5 Fitness joined the ranks of the elite fitness professionals by signing on with Fitness Revolution, the fastest-growing fitness franchise in the nation.

With a focus on nutrition and lifelong wellness, FR Kirkland offers a holistic approach to fitness, delivering results through researched training methods and coaches that care.

Opening the event to the public was an easy decision, Acda says.

“In the end, this event is greater than Element 5 Fitness and it’s involvement with Fitness Revolution. It’s about the city of Kirkland. We want to make this as interactive and fun as possible, with local businesses taking part and folks getting to experience what we do.”

At the ceremony, attendants will have the chance to win valuable prizes in a raffle sponsored by Element 5 Fitness and their local community business partners. Salon Rae in Juanita is giving away hair products, and Fresh Vitamins will have nutritional supplements to sample or take home.

While the fitness training facility marks a high point in the business, delivering increased space and more advanced equipment, their partnership with Fitness Revolution plans to climb much higher.

Lubas explains, “This partnership is outstanding, but we don’t plan on resting on our laurels. We now simply have a greater responsibility to deliver the results we’ve become known for. “Without a doubt, what we’re most excited about with this move is to be able to change more lives.”

In conjunction with its grand re-opening, Element 5 Fitness is offering a 50% discount off the first month of new memberships. Membership information is available at the facility, by calling 425-823-4400, or by emailing info@element5fitness.com.

So come check out the new fitness revolution and join us for food, giveaways, workout program demos, and hanging out with our awesome fitness community!

Hope to see you there!

- Rommel and Belton

Element 5 Fitness Co-Founders Rommel Ryan Acda and Belton Lubas just recently filmed their segment as part of the World Fitness Elite 2011 Trainers of the Year on March 31, 2012 in Orlando, Florida.  Rommel and Belton shared their personal stories on how they got started in the fitness industry, and shared their best tips on health, fitness and nutrition.

The TV show will be aired about six months from now on ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox affiliates around the world.

“We are so grateful for this opportunity, and honestly Belton and I really wanted to thank our dedicated clients for helping us get to this point as we certainly couldn’t have done it without them.  We’re blessed to have such amazing clients that drive us to do what we do to help improve their lives through our brand of fitness,” said Rommel.

They were also live radio interviewed by celebrity host Greg Rollett following the tv shoot.

Listen to Rommel’s radio interview here —–> Rommel World Fitness Elite Radio Interview

Listen to Belton’s radio interview here —–> Belton World Fitness Elite Radio Interview

More media shots from the weekend.

What is success when is comes to working out and being healthy?

A lot of people think everything in their day to day life has to be perfect. It doesn’t always have to be perfect, but it is important to know what you’re comfortable with and what you can get away with. Personally, I know that I need to stay away from pizza, because I can’t just have a slice or two. I feel I need to eat the whole thing in one sitting.

When working out I know I need to have my work out written down before I start. If I have it written down I won’t stray away from it and I will fulfill on my goal for that workout.

Try not to put too much pressure on yourself to be perfect. At the end of each day think about your workout, and how you did with your nutrition. By doing this you learn from your mistakes and can adjust for the next meal or next workout. I believe to be successful you must ask yourself one question, “Did you give everything you have to be successful that day?” This means, if you are tired and it’s been a long day at work and you go to the gym and you only have 70% in the tank, give all 70% you have instead of slacking. A hard 70% workout is better than just giving in that day. If you have one bad meal don’t be discouraged by it. Learn and adjust for the next day, but don’t let one meal become another meal the next day. By letting one meal or one workout affect you for more than just one day, it makes being successful really tough. Find a balance; you will reach your goals before you know it and you will enjoy living a healthy life.

It’s a simple question, but do you have the courage to answer it?

- Coach Drew

Alright everyone!  This blog post is going to be short and sweet and is simply a response to our local community of personal trainers and strength coaches.

Why?  Because we’re simply fed up with meeting people out in the community who have told us that they’ve been getting injured either flipping a tire or working with heavy sandbags at other gyms or boot camps.  So thank you to those trainers who didn’t do their job and now your clients are running over to us.  But honestly, do it right or don’t try to add these power based movements to your programs!

So here are a few videos to show you how it’s done.

How To Flip A Tire

How To Clean & Press Heavy Sandbag

And just to prove our point, here’s a video that shows our morning “mom boot campers” who weigh no more than 140 pounds flipping the 250 pound tire.

Train Right, Train Hard!

Rommel

PS…If you wanna do it right give us a call if you live in the Kirkland or Eastside, WA area. Or give our buddy Ryan Riess a visit at his gym in Kent,WA ==> http://www.imperialtraining.com/

Either way, you’ll be in good hands!

Here’s our video submissions for the Kirkland Winter Fitness Challenge hosted by the Central Park Tennis Club. Team 1 comprised of three of our employees, and Team 2 comprised of two of our female boot camp clients and Belton Lubas (co-owner). Unfortunately, Belton had a last minute injury and his results are unofficial (and unfortunately were not video recorded).

TEAM 1 Total Points = 6,203

Linden
Pushups = (24) 816, Shuttle = (21) 798, Rower = (680m) 730
Total = 2,344

Kelly
Pushups = (13) 442, Shuttle = (20) 760, Rower = (665m) 715
Total = 1,917

Drew
Pushups = (22) 506, Shuttle = (21) 735, Rower = 701m
Total = 1,942

TEAM 2 Total Points = 4,328

Kristin
Pushups = (18) 612, Shuttle = (21) 798, Rower = (672m) 722
Total = 2,132

Theresa
Pushups = (20) 680, Shuttle = (21) 798, Rower = (668m) 718
Total = 2,196

I recently finished reading The New Rules of Lifting for Women by Lou Schuler and was pleased to find that he addresses many of the preconceived notions about what heavy lifting will do to a woman’s body.

For example, he debunks the idea that lifting heavy weight will make you bulky and lifting 3 pound dumbbells will give you “longer” or “leaner” muscles.  Sure, there is absolute appeal for a woman to want to create longer and leaner muscles, but the fact of the matter according to Schuler, is “muscles…have a genetically predetermined shape.  If you train and feed a muscle so that it grows, you can’t choose whether the muscle becomes ‘bulky’ or ‘long and lean, like a dancer’s’ any more than you can choose your own height.”

Embracing this idea, in my opinion, is the first step toward picking up heavier weights.  If you have no control over “shaping” your body and how your muscles are going to grow, then what is the point in wasting your time lifting light weights for hundreds of reps?  It may give you better muscle endurance, but how does that serve you in real life?  Pushing, pulling, twisting, and squatting encompass the four major daily physical activities, and unless your goal is to do one of these activities over and over, then high reps and minimal weight may be a waste of time.

So what is my point?  The only way to get stronger is by lifting heavier weights.  If you lift 10 pounds 5 times and then increase your reps to 10 times, you haven’t increased your strength at all, only your endurance.  And why would anyone want to be stronger?  Think about functional movement.

Lifting your child out of a car seat, pushing the box of Christmas decorations back onto the shelf, chopping wood (okay, maybe not) but you get my point.  Being stronger will only make these movements easier and prevent injury, and who doesn’t want that?

Long story short, pick up heavier weights already!  It’s the New Year and time for an exciting challenge.

Strong = sexy

- Linden

Have a safe and wonderful New Year! Cheers!

It’s mid-week and your energy and enthusiasm to get a workout in is starting to fade. You’ve done well the past two days, but you might have gone too hard and your mind and body are simply telling you to back off a bit.

So what do you do?

Well, you just need that extra motivation and inspiring workout to get you excited again. And, have we got the perfect workout for you. Just follow the advice of our friend from “Beefy’s Gym”, especially when he explains, “That was the pre-warmup, to get you ready for the warm-up, to get you ready for the pre-workout, followed by the workout, which precedes the post-workout, then we’re going into a 60-minute warm-down…”

Ok, better yet, I’ll just let you watch the video and you can follow from there, enjoy

Element 5 Fitness founders and creators of Strong & Sexy Boot
Camps Rommel Acda, CSCS, and Belton Lubas, NASM-CPT are proud to announce the
grand opening of their first fitness training center in Kirkland, WA.  The Element 5 Fitness Training Center offers
group fitness and fat loss programs, one-on-one personal training, Muscle
Activation Techniques (MAT), sports performance enhancement, and is also the first
licensed Underground Strength Coach Gym in the Pacific Northwest. 

Rommel and
Belton believe that their unique fitness programs are the answer for fitness
enthusiasts feeling the effects of the economic crisis currently facing
Americans. They state: “People are really struggling right now with these hard
financial times.  Though we feel
fitness is a necessity item, most people still do not, and the bottom line is
that it tends to be the first thing that gets cut when people are short on
funds.  Our fitness programs provide
the solution to maintain staying in shape.”  Our Strong & Sexy Boot Camps are thriving in spite of a
struggling economy due to its mission of offering large group workouts lasting
60 minutes in length for as little as $20 per workout. This offers a
significantly more affordable alternative for busy people than traditional
one-on-one personal training rates that start at $65 per one-hour session. 

Strong
& Sexy Boot Camps has some ravings fans, none more vocal than Briony Stow, “I
first heard about the Bootcamp from a friend, naturally we were a little
skeptical, but they promised amazing results and money back guarantees, so why
wouldn’t you try it out? So I did. A few months later, I achieved my weight
loss goal. In fact, EVERYONE that came to train and followed the nutrition
guidelines achieved amazing results. I would recommend these guys to anyone and
everyone! Oh, and even though I reached my goal, it became something that I
enjoy so much that I continue to train with them 2-3 times a week and will do
so indefinitely.” 

Element 5
Fitness training center is also home to the United Source Martial Arts
Academy.  The United Source Academy
specializes in authentic Muay Thai
kickboxing,  Western Boxing, Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune  Do, Filipino
Weaponry, Clinch/Ground Boxing, and Fitness Kickboxing.  The academy offers a multifaceted experience for the beginning to
advanced practitioner. Their focus is not limited to the insufficiency of
solely creating the ‘toughest fighter’ but rather in the equally important
value of introducing individuals and families to the life long benefits of
martial edification and personal development.

The Element 5
Fitness Training Center will be holding a free boot camp from 10-11am this
Saturday to kick off the grand opening.
The United Source Academy will be holding martial arts demonstrations every
30 minutes starting 10am.  Come join us for a great workout at 10am, food, drinks, and prizes to follow at 11:30am.  We are located at 11626 Slater Ave NE, Suites 4 and 5, Kirkland, WA 98034 behind NAPA Auto
Parts.  For more
information call us at 425-823-4400.

[Photo credit: Shootsnikon]

Having trouble sticking to your fitness routine?  Shake it up a little by working out first thing in the morning.  It’s a huge mental shift, but with the sun coming up earlier, early morning workouts will help you jump start your metabolism for the rest of the day.

In addition, you can avoid the stress of battling decisions between your workout and possible last minute evening activities that would have competed with your time, you won’t have to think about getting your workout in, and you’ll find yourself getting more work done during the day.

So challenge yourself to get up earlier and in less than two weeks I guarantee you’ll see and feel a difference.

PS, Still need some pick me up help in the morning? Here are two quick dynamic flexibility exercises to get the blood flowing.

Perform 2 sets of 10 reps for each exercise.

1. Cat/Camel

2. Opposites (aka Bird Dog)