Fit for life

10 Fitness tips from Jessica Biel’s
10. Everybody needs a break.
Owens delivers the best news possible: working out for more than an hour is a “waste of time.” He suggests gym-goers “take one to two days off a week: have a massage, make sure you get plenty of rest. The muscles actually change when they’re recovering.”

10 Fitness tips from Jessica Biel’s
8. Focus on your whole body – not just problem areas.
Owens tells Us the best way to lose weight and tone up is “to blend nutrition, exercise, and physical therapy. The body responds better. People get too wrapped up in doing isolated movement, like being very body part specific.”

10 Fitness tips from Jessica Biel’s
9. All cardio and no lifting makes for bad workouts.
“People get too cardio-crazy and need to do more weight lifting,” says Owens. He explains that for many people on elliptical machines, “their heart Rate is about the same as if they were shopping around a mall.”

10 Fitness tips from Jessica Biel’s
7. The “F” word is not all bad.
Rachel McAdams‘ trainer, Jerry Owen, says, “The biggest problem is that people are fat phobic. It¹s clinically proven that we need healthy fat in our diets. You need to eat a balanced diet but not be afraid of fat, like Omega 3 fatty acids like walnuts, olive oil and even coconut oil.”

10 Fitness tips from Jessica Biel’s
6. Just because it’s trendy doesn’t mean it works.
Pasternak doesn’t do yoga or pilates with his clients. “Those are great forms of exercise for stability and balance, but neither one of those is going to change your body dramatically like training with weights does.”

10 Fitness tips from Jessica Biel’s
5. Healthy meals can be tasty.
Harley Pasternak, who works with Eva Mendes and Grey’s Anatomy star Katherine Heigl, taught both of the actresses how to cook meals with some easy, healthy substitutions. “Breakfast would be whole grain bread French toast with egg whites and cinnamon. For a mid-morning snack, they’d do a mixed-berry protein shake. Lunch might be sweet potato tuna melt. An afternoon snack might be hummus with celery sticks. Dinner would be spaghetti and meatballs with spaghetti squash and meatballs made of turkey or chicken breast.”

10 Fitness tips from Jessica Biel’s
4. Everything old is new again.
Walsh loves to use medicine balls with his intermediate to advanced level clients. “Get a medicine ball and do a lunge with a twist while you are holding the ball. Those are great. You are activating so many muscles at once, and you are using those muscles over so many different plains.”

10 Fitness tips from Jessica Biel’s
3. Food is not the enemy.
If you’re out and about as Walsh recommends, you need snacks and drinks to give you sustained energy. He suggests “really organic and clean foods, all natural, like nuts.” Also, “an amino acid drink, so that you’re not burning up a lot of your muscle, or protein.”

10 Fitness tips from Jessica Biel’s
2. Hard work is even better.
According to Walsh, Biel’s workouts are intense. “We do full body movements. You are pretty much using as many muscles at once, which in turn will jack that heart rate up.”

10 Fitness tips from Jessica Biel’s
1. Change is good!
Jessica Biel’s trainer, Jason Walsh, likes to keep his client mentally stimulated. “I’m a big advocate of recreational sports and stuff. If someone can get out there, even if it’s a hike or something like that, just to break up the monotony of going to the gym…I really like that.”

5 OF THE BEST FITNESS TIPS FROM CONOR MCGREGOR.
5. Don’t complicate food
A lot of gym bros get caught up in macro counting. And while it’s a sure-fire way to bigger gains, forever fixating on the numbers can be exhausting.

Keep it simple.

Speaking to Men’s Journal, McGregor says: “I just try to eat clean. I’ll eat good quality meats, good-quality greens, good-quality carbohydrates like sweet potatoes and butternut squash, and that’s it.”

If you want to build muscle, then your diet needs to be on point. It is, after all, more than half the battle. But don’t use it as an excuse. Try to ensure you’re getting roughly 30% of your calories from fats, 40% from carbs and 30% from protein; a US study found eating double your RDA of protein – up to around 110g – boosts muscle growth and fat loss.

(Related: 5 biggest nutrition mistakes)

Avoid fatty foods – the odd fast takeout won’t kill you – drink plenty of water, and try and cut down on sugar. Couple this with your workout plan, and you’ll have a knockout body in no time.