By Ted Bodenrader

It rises in the east and sets in the west.

But once it comes out, there's no hiding from it. It hovers above like a gargantuan lamp to expose all of your physical traits, some of them ravishing, some of them flawed.

Yet, many practitioners in the fitness crowd view the summer sun as brilliant spotlight cast down upon them as they proudly strut their stuff on their own, personal stage, whether it be a street corner, a grassy park or a windy beach.

And in yet another sense, this sun is a lot like a glowing, high-powered oven. Once it's turned on, it's time for you to sizzle. However, before you serve up your finished product to the outside world, there are methods of preparing for such a long-awaited unveiling. In other words, if your body is the entrée, then you are its chef.

A gourmet chef knows what types of ingredients it takes to serve up a winning formula and he knows the tedious steps in doing so. He must pay strict attention to detail - covering all facets of his trade - from raw beginning to tasty finish.

He must carve away the greasy fats, pick apart the bones, and bring forth the hearty meat. He must tenderize. He was marinate. He must baste. He must sprinkle and dabble the right touch of spices, providing the seasoning that provides that little extra kick. He must heat at the right temperature, for the right amount of time, in just the right settings.

A great chef knows that if one such element is off, one minor detail left out, it can tarnish the entire dish.

Julia Pollard has never been mistaken for Julia Child. In fact, the Boston-based personal trainer has even been known to burn toast now and then. However, when it comes to whipping a soft cheesecake into a hardened beefcake, Pollard certainly has the cutlery skills of a four-star chef. Professionally, she has been transforming soft cream puffs into sizzling hot potatoes for several years and counting.

And with the temperatures on the rise, Pollard knows that it's time to crank up the heat with what we call the six degrees of preparation.

WEIGHT TRAINING

If you are the chef, this is likely the phase in which you are slicing and dicing up all of your goodies. All that curling, pressing and extending you do with those iron counterparts - whether they be through free weights or modernized machines - it should primarily be focused toward one thing: carving up a chiseled physique.

"As far as weight training is concerned, one's approach should be goal-oriented," explains Pollard. "A program for one individual should address an individual's weight training experience, fitness level, goals, pre-existing conditions, et cetera. I would say that in general, most people are safe following a circuit style workout for conditioning purposes only. However, thinking that one program is good for the general public is a big mistake, because there are many factors involved."

Yet, the spring months may be the ideal time to incorporate the low resistance/high repetition approach into your weight-training regimen, since it's universally understood that "cuts" are in. Pollard also stresses the importance of targeting body parts that are apt to be exposed during the sunshine months. A firm layer of abdominals, a formidable pair of shoulders, and some diamond-shaped calves will go great with the bikini or bathing suit you're yearning to bare in public.

CARDIOVASCULAR EXERCISE

Getting into tip-top shape may hardly be a walk in the park, but that soothing stroll through the neighborhood may just be the jumpstart your body needs in attaining sound cardiovascular fitness. With the indoor treadmills, step machines, lifecycles, and step machines dictating your cardiovascular dance during the chilling months, the rising thermometers can spring a slew of alternative cardio activities.

"With the warm weather people will want to spend more time outdoors," says Pollard. "This is a great time of year to cross train and get involved in other activities such as walking outdoors, running, rowing, biking, roller blading, hiking, and swimming. Cross training your workout will prevent boredom, reduce the risks of overuse injuries and allow you to enjoy your activity at the same time that you're gaining some health benefits."

One such benefit, of course, is in excreting all the unwanted fat from your body, much the way a turkey baster sucks the grease from a Thanksgiving Day bird.

"To lose weight, just simply subtract 250 calories daily from your diet and burn off another 250 through exercise," says Pollard. "This is about a pound per week. Do that for eight weeks and that's eight pounds you'll drop. That is a safe and realistic amount of weight loss for that amount of time for the normal and healthy adult."

DIET

It's time to throw those cookies, cheese curls, potato chips, and ice cream bars straight out the window. Otherwise, the only thing you'll be tossing away are all those long, grueling hours you've put in at the gym.

Unfortunately, many fitness enthusiasts believe that an hour of hard labor gives the green light to those junk food indulgences and frequent midnight raids of the snack drawers. Yet, a sound, healthy diet may be the single most vital ingredient to attaining your summer sizzle.

"You have to make sure you are eating healthy," assured Pollard. "You should be consuming 30 percent less of fats and less than one-third of that should come from saturated fats."

Pollard also recommends that your daily caloric intake should dip down to between 10-15% protein (chicken breast, fish, egg whites) and upgrade to 55-60% carbohydrates (rice, baked potatoes).

Meanwhile, be sure to keep that faucet running continually. The average person should consume between 8 and 12 glasses per day of the ultimate weight-loss beverage - water! That's right, the liquid formula for draining away the fat is as simple as H20.

SUPPLEMENTS

With the weight training, cardiovascular exercise, and rigid diet laying the foundation for your entrée, it's time to sprinkle on the fine finishing touches. Yes, it's time to dabble on the tasty spices.

Sprucing up your physique, giving it that extra kick, are those bottled containers and powdered packets filling up that kitchen cabinet. It's that shelf occupied with your supplements.

While supplements alone are unlikely to a Barry White into a Vanna White, these tabulated forms of salvation are scientifically proven to work in conjunction with exercise and diet in serving up championship caliber bodies.

The flourishing market offers countless products to cater to your every need, whether you're looking to become a tower of power or just a little more trim and slim.

Nonetheless, they come at you in pulsating repetitions: EAS, AST Research, TwinLab, Met-Rx, Sports One, and many, many more. These products can perform a variety of tricks, whether they're injecting you with some hustle (Xenadrine RFA, Dymetarine Xtreme) or building the muscle (VP2 Whey, 19-Nor 250, Myoplex Plus). Others simply take the jiggle out of your wiggle (Hydroxycut, Thyrolean, Adipokinetix).

Yet, with an entire smorgasbord of supplements available at your very fingertips, it's up to you, the chef, to decide on what particular products satisfy your fitness tastes.

MOTIVATION

Your body has finally been sprung from the winter freezer. With the spring months upon us, you feel that you've finally thawed out. There's only one phase remaining in your quest.

It's time to cook.

Crank up the burners and inject intensity in every phase you can, whether you're in the weight room, the aerobics room, or on the neighborhood streets. The sun blazing above should be showering upon you an invaluable commodity: motivation.

"Yes, the warm spring weather gets people thinking about getting into shape since the summer is approaching," explains Pollard. "However once the summer comes people like to exercise outdoors and tend to spend less time in the gym."

But with your fitness ovens soon approaching maximum temperatures, summer time is certainly NO time to be carelessly cooling off.

PERSISTENCE

You've finally served up the more appealing, more mouth-watering you for the rest of the outside world to see. You've applied all the seasoning, all the tedious particulars in creating that perfect masterpiece. All the elements have blended together to form a riveting finished product.

However, one last element should be ingratiated into your recipe, before you finally turn in the apron for the summer. It is called persistence.

"Sure, people can make some progress by paying close attention to their diets, how many calories they take in per day, and making sure they are eating healthy," says Pollard. "Cardiovascular activities as well as a weight training routines can help one achieve those short-term fitness goals. But it's the consistency regarding your (long-term) fitness goals that will eventually help you achieve them."

The recipe of weight training, exercise, and dietary measures you've whirled so masterfully into the mix is one that should be maintained on a 12-month basis. In other words, you need a means to preserve your finished product, the way a chef will refrigerate an entrée to prevent it from going sour. And that year-round commitment to persistence is the ideal refrigerator for keeping your finished product - your hardened, well-sculpted physique - from ultimately going stale.

Six Degrees of Preparation
Item # A118