Our Mission is to make regular exercise a permanent part of your life!

Here at Mike Arteaga's we talk about 'losing fat,' as opposed to 'losing weight.' To us, the difference is very important, because your long-term health depends on a proper approach to fat loss.

When your goal is simply 'weight loss,' you risk losing water and muscle along with fat, which usually results in a very fast decline in 'weight' and the appearance of quick success. The problem occurs when you lose muscle, the weight always comes back, but usually in the form of water and fat instead.

So, if you approach this personal project with the wrong mindset and machinery, you'll ultimately be replacing muscle with fat, which we can establish is completely the opposite of your original goal.

There are basically two essential components to fat loss:
1. Take in fewer calories than you burn.
2. Balance your workout with strengthening exercises in addition to cardiovascular exercise.

Sometimes we feel that we can eat - and drink - anything we want just because we workout. Not true. When your calorie intake exceeds your calorie burn, you're working against yourself.

We also sometimes think, okay in order to lose weight I'm going to run, bike, swim, step, and treadmill myself to the weight I want. All of these exercises are wonderful, however without strength training they will only provide half of the answer. Basically, muscle burns significantly more calories than fat, so as you build muscle you are employing it as an ally against fat.

Finally, the ultimate question, when will I see results?

When you begin a strength training program with a Fitness Trainer on our strength training Circuit and, over time, regularly increase your weights, this is progress and is an important measure of your success. You're building muscle and burning fat.

As for cardiovascular progress, are you now walking for 30 minutes when you used to only walk for 10 minutes? Did you extend that run a little further? Are you able to increase your resistance in Group Ride? This is progress.

Also, for most people the stomach, hip, and thigh area is the first place fat begins to show and the first place we begin to see changes in our bodies. When these measurements go down, that is success.

Recently, we had a member embark on a year-long journey with a personal trainer. At the end of her first year, she and her trainer talked about the changes that had occurred over the past 12 months - in short, her body weight was the exact same as when she began her program, but she had dropped two dress sizes. If she had been measuring her success purely with a scale, she might have become discouraged, however she had clearly lost fat, gained muscle, and was feeling fantastic.

Our Team is here to speak with you if you want to begin losing fat, tracking your progress, or are becoming discouraged with your workouts. That's why we're here!