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Harry Downing Fitness
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Fitness Blog
The Fitness Blog is intended to provide practical information to help you get the most out of exercise. It will be updated regularly, so please visit again. Thanks!
7/27/10
Contributing Author
Today's blog contains a link to an article entitled "7 Things Your Doctor Won't Tell You," by Austin's own Laura Farb, L.Ac., ACN. The article contains information on a practical and natural approach to nutrition and wellness. Click on the link below to read the article.
Laura may be contacted through her web site www.jadelotuswellness.com
Thanks for the contribution Laura!
Thanks for reading the Fitness blog. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me by clicking the link below. For additional practical fitness-related information click here.
3/21/10
Exercise and weight loss
There has been a fair amount of recent information about exercise and weight loss. New studies have shown that despite long held beliefs about exercise and weight reduction, exercise alone is actually not a particularly effective weight loss strategy. In fact, one of the unintended consequences of increased activity can be increased appetite, so if you are not careful you can actually gain weight when you start your exercise program.
There are a lot of great reasons to exercise. Exercise increases bone density, improves cardiovascular health, raises your HDL (good) cholesterol and lowers triglycerides. It can also improve your mood and lead to better sleep. It can even improve your sex life. However, for effective weight loss exercise must be combined with a reduction in calories taken in. In other words, you have to eat less as well as move more. This can be difficult because it is a lot easier to take in calories than it is to burn them off with exercise.
So what can you do? Here are a few suggestions:
- Keep a food log. Logging what you eat will help make you aware of opportunities to reduce calories over the course of your day. Be meticulous and log everything you take in.
- Design a plan to meet your nutritional requirements. There are a wide variety of resources available to help you with this. I recommend using www.myfitnesspal.com. It has a wealth of information as well as an interactive tracker that you can customize to your current situation and your goals. It is a free web site and smart phone app and can really help you achieve your weight loss goals.
- Have realistic expectations about your rate of weight loss. Depending on your metabolism and starting weight, a realistic expectation for sustainable weight loss will probably be between one half pound to two pounds per week.
- Understand your caloric burn. There are a number of ways to track calories burned. If you don’t have a monitor that does it for you, here is a chart you can use: www.nutribase.com/exercali.htm. Improved awareness of how many calories you burn when you exercise will help you make better nutritional choices.
Chances are the weight you are trying to lose went on gradually. Despite what you see on television, effective and sustainable weight loss is also gradual. However, with a complete plan, realistic expectations and perseverance you will achieve your weight loss goals.
Thanks for reading my blog. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me by clicking the link below. For additional practical fitness-related information click here.
12/31/09
Planning for a healthier lifestyle
For many people the start of a new year presents a good opportunity to embark on an exercise program. If you are planning to lose a few pounds or take steps to improve your health, here are a few ideas to help you plan for success.
Plan a lifestyle change, not an exercise program. Exercise programs come and go, but lifestyle changes last. For maximum effectiveness your lifestyle change should incorporate regular exercise, proper nutrition and plenty of sleep.
Have a plan. Sit down and design a plan, then share it with a friend or workout partner. Your plan should be realistic and achievable, and should include some sort of exercise every day.
Easy does it. Meaningful progress is made up of small steps. Doing too much too fast can lead to injury and burn out. You plan should be appropriate for your current fitness level, not your desired fitness level.
Build a strong foundation. Your core is the foundation of your body, and should be developed carefully and completely. Include exercises that work your entire core, not just the prime movers. Working in an unstable environment with light weights is a great way to keep your core engaged and encourage development.
Choose quality over quantity. Resistance training is an integral part of a healthy lifestyle. However, quality of movement is much more important than quantity. A movement performed properly with a light weight is much more effective and much less likely to cause injury than the same movement performed improperly with a heavier weight.
Raise your heart rate. Cardio exercise is extremely important, especially if you are trying to lose weight. Try to do something that elevates your heart rate every day.
Ask for help. If you are uncertain where to begin ask someone who knows. Most trainers will be happy to sit down with you for a free consultation and get you pointed in the right direction. Consulting with a professional will insure that the plan you design will be right for your fitness level.
Stick with it. For most people the first day of a new lifestyle is relatively easy. Subsequent days can be a bit more challenging. Commit yourself to sticking with your plan for the long term. As you begin to make progress it will become easier to do.
If you are successful in implementing your lifestyle change it will have a long-lasting positive impact on your quality of life. Proper planning and a strong level of commitment greatly improve your chances of success.
Thanks for reading my blog. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me by clicking the link below. For additional practical fitness-related information click here.
12/9/09
Elevate your fitness level by taking the stairs
Do you want to increase your cardio endurance? Tone your lower body? Lose a few pounds? If you are trying to do any or all of these, there are few ways to exercise that are as effective as stair climbing. Stair climbing is great exercise, and can be done in a variety of ways to insure that you exercise your muscles from different angles and at different speeds. For example, you can alternate climbing straight ahead with side-stepping or climbing backwards. Be sure to hold onto the banister for safety. Add intervals to your stair climbing by walking, then running up the stairs, or by running up and walking down. To increase the level of difficulty and the resistance challenge to your quads and glutes try taking the stairs two or three at a time or carry weights in a backpack.
If you live in a multiple floor house or apartment you have all the equipment you need to start stair climbing regularly. If not, you can find stairs in any office building, mall or parking garage. If you are lucky enough to live in Austin, try taking the stairs to the top of Mt. Bonnell. You will be rewarded with great exercise and a terrific view.
Stair climbing will provide immediate improvement to your fitness level, so make a point of taking the stairs any time the opportunity presents itself. Skipping the elevator and taking the stairs is a great way to elevate your level of fitness.
Thanks for reading my blog. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me by clicking the link below. For additional practical fitness-related information click here. Have a great week.
11/24/09
Use circuit training for maximum efficiency and effectiveness
Resistance training is an excellent way to improve your level of fitness, tone your muscles and lose those extra pounds. Most resistance training routines involve performing multiple sets of exercises for each muscle group. One common approach to resistance training employs horizontal loading. Horizontal loading is the performance of all sets for a particular muscle group (with a rest period after each set) before moving on to the next muscle group. Horizontal loading is appropriate for those who lift very heavy weights, but for the vast majority of people it is not the most efficient or effective way to exercise. Horizontal loading does not provide a cardio benefit and in a typical workout can result in more time spent resting than working out.
The alternative to horizontal loading is vertical loading. This is also known as circuit training. Circuit training is the performance of one or more sets for each muscle group sequentially with no rest between sets. Each complete circuit is followed by a brief rest period, usually thirty to sixty seconds. A typical workout would normally consist of one to three circuits, depending on your fitness level and goals. A sample circuit is described below:
Core:
Ball plank
Balance:
Single leg balance progression
Reactive:
Multi-planar jumps
Chest:
Push ups
Back:
Chin ups
Shoulders:
Dumbbell overhead press
Legs:
Squats
Biceps:
Dumbbell Curl
Triceps:
Dips
Circuit training is efficient because very little time is lost resting. Circuit training also provides a cardio benefit similar to that experienced during a brisk walk, so it can be very helpful if weight loss is one of your fitness goals. Almost any resistance training program can be adapted to a circuit format, so give it a try the next time you break out the weights.
Thanks for reading my blog. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me by clicking the link below. For additional practical fitness-related information click here. Have a great week.
11/8/09
Mix it up to avoid the plateau effect
If you do anything long enough you will become bored with it. When it comes to exercise, boredom isn’t the only problem you face. Your body is a remarkably efficient machine. It can and will adapt to any demand you place on it, usually in about four to six weeks. This is known as the plateau effect, and it can derail your efforts to continue to make progress in your fitness program. Because of the plateau effect, chances are, by the time you become bored with your routine it will have long since ceased to be effective.
The solution to this problem is variety. For cardio, vary the type and intensity of exercise you use. If you aren’t already using interval training consider incorporating it. Interval training involves cycling your heart rate between different working zones and is an excellent way to add variety to your program. If you run or walk try using a variety of different routes and terrains. Consider biking, swimming or running stairs as cardio alternatives.
For your resistance training program, avoid using the same exercises for too long. Simply increasing the weight you lift will not be enough to ward off a plateau. Instead, incorporate body weight exercises, work in both stable and unstable environments and work in all three planes of motion. Work your muscles using different exercises, angles and tempos, and change your routine frequently.
Making frequent changes to your fitness program will prevent boredom. It will also prevent your body from adapting to your routine and keep you from hitting the dreaded plateau.
Thanks for reading my blog. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me by clicking the link below. For additional practical fitness-related information click here. Have a great week.
11/1/09
Dip your way to great arms
Your triceps are located in the back part of your upper arm. The primary function of the triceps muscle is to straighten the arm by extending the elbow. Tricep dips are an excellent exercise for triceps development. To perform tricep dips place your hands shoulder width apart behind you on a couch, step, bench or chair. Your fingers should point forward. Extend you feet in front of you until your legs are straight. Straighten your arms and lift your body to start the movement. Slowly lower your body until you are just off the floor. Press your body up by straightening your arms.
Dips can be made easier (regressed) by bending your knees and bringing your feet closer to your body. To increase range of motion and difficulty, perform dips on a higher surface. For better core engagement, raise one leg off the floor while you perform the movement. If dips cause strain on your wrists you can alleviate it by grasping dumbbells (as pictured) or performing them on your fists. Proper form and some variations for this exercise are illustrated in the pictures to the right.
Tricep dips are a great exercise and, like all body weight exercises, can be performed almost anywhere. Work in a few sets a week and get ready to show off your shapely and toned upper arms.
Thanks for reading my blog. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me by clicking the link below. For additional practical fitness-related information click here. Have a great week.
10/27/09
Strengthen your core with plank
A strong core can provide you with stability and help prevent injury. Core strength is particularly important in the prevention of lower back injury and pain. Many people equate core exercise with sit ups and crunches, but these exercises focus on the prime movers and neglect the majority of the smaller muscles in the core. They also require you to flex your spine, which can be hard on your back.
For a terrific workout that safely exercises all of the muscles in your core, try the many variations of plank.
To perform a basic floor plank lie face down on the floor. Position your elbows directly beneath your shoulders and draw your navel in toward your spine while you raise yourself up onto your forearms and toes. Continue to breathe while holding this position for as long as possible. To make this movement easier, you can position yourself on your hands and toes, your forearms and knees, or on an incline. Plank can be made more difficult by moving your body slowly up and down. Additional variations include stability ball plank and side plank.
Add variety to your workouts by performing different versions of plank on different days, or even during different sets in the same workout. Keep track of the amount of time you are able to hold the position, and try to make it a little longer every week. The result of your efforts will be a stronger and more stable core.
Thanks for reading my blog. If you have any questions please click the link below for my contact information. Have a great week.
10/18/09
Finding motivation through competition
It can be very difficult to sustain a fitness program over the long term. Even if you vary your activities, from time to time you will find yourself bored or unmotivated. During these low-energy periods consider motivating yourself through competition.
Throughout the year there are a number of runs, swims, bike races and charity events in the Austin area. Pick a weekend, pick an event, and start working toward achieving the best possible outcome. It doesn't matter what kind of shape you are in, and it doesn't matter how fast you go. The only thing that is important is that you enter, start and finish, and that you do your best. Pick a realistic distance and goal for your first event. A 5K race is a good starting point for just about anyone. Depending on your fitness level you can walk, run, or some combination of the two. Build on your first experience and set improvement goals for subsequent races.
For additional motivation, enter a charity event. This will enable you to motivate yourself and support a worthy cause at the same time. Whatever event you decide to enter, set a goal for your finishing time and work toward achieving that goal. If possible, compete in a variety of different events over the course of the year. Training for the different activities will help keep your fitness program fresh and interesting. If you can find a partner to train and race with it will increase the level of motivation. Sharing the experience will also make it more enjoyable.
Everyone needs a little motivation once in a while. If your fitness program has hit the doldrums, spice it up with a little friendly competition.
Thanks for reading my blog this week. If you have any questions or need any additional information click the link below. I'll be glad to help you out. Have a great week!
10/11/09
Squeezing It In – Finding Time to Exercise
One of the real benefits of a home fitness plan is the convenience of being able to work out without leaving the house. Setting aside a regular time to exercise is important and should be your goal. However, there will be times when circumstances prevent you from doing this. When life gets in the way, don’t wait to work out until you have time to complete your entire routine. Instead, find ways to exercise in the time you have available.
For example, you can perform body weight exercises while watching your favorite program on television. Hold the plank position on the floor or on a stability ball for as long as you can during every commercial break.
Football season is here. If you are watching a game, instead of heading to the refrigerator for a half-time snack, perform a mini-circuit of squats, push ups and lateral raises. See how many circuits you can complete before the second half kickoff. If you have stairs available you can get a little cardio in by adding three trips up and down to each circuit. If not, do jump squats instead of regular squats – making that change will have a similar impact on your heart rate.
Integrate exercise into the game. Try doing a push up for every penalty yard your team is assessed, or a set of squats for every score.
If you spend a lot of time sitting at home or at work, draw your navel in toward your spine while you are seated. Be sure to keep breathing. This simple movement will engage and exercise the muscles in your core. For even better core engagement replace your chair with a stability ball. Make sure the stability ball is big enough to allow your knees to remain level with or slightly below your hips.
Your body will respond to exercise regardless of when and where you do it. If you don’t have time to complete your entire routine, squeeze exercise in where and when you can.
Thanks for reading my blog this week. If you have any questions, or need any information you can get my contact information by clicking the link below. Have a great week.
10/4/09
Finding Balance in Your Life
I used to think balance was something you either had or didn’t have. I didn’t have it. It wasn’t until I started working on my trainer certification that I gave any thought to the idea of balance training.
My initial attempts at balance training were pretty comical. I stood on one leg while I brushed my teeth in the morning. I was amazed at how difficult this was for me to do. I wanted to do something about it, so I added a balance training component to my regular workout.
Initially I just stood on each leg for thirty seconds during every set. After a few weeks I was able to move up to a single leg balance progression that involved movement in all three planes. It’s a pretty good sequence and I would recommend trying it if you haven’t already.
To perform this balance progression, start by standing on one leg. Extend the other leg forward, to the side and to the rear. Return to the starting position after each movement. Keep your foot low and your toe pointed for all of the movements, and turn your hips slightly when extending to the rear. Pictures of this sequence are on the right. You can add challenge by performing the progression barefoot, on a thick carpet, exercise mat or couch cushion.
Don’t limit balance training to your workouts. You can balance train any time you get a minute to stand still. Try standing on one foot while you perform day to day activities like unloading the dishwasher or folding laundry. Any movements you make with your upper or lower body while standing on one leg will add challenge, and in a short period of time you will notice a significant improvement in your balance.
Balance training activates and engages your core, and provides a lot of short term and long term benefits. Improved balance will enable you to get more enjoyment out of a wide variety of activities, and will also help you avoid falls and associated injuries. Good balance is especially important when you get older.
No matter how good or bad your balance is you can improve it with practice and training, so take advantage of every opportunity to find balance in your life.
Thanks for reading my blog. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. You can reach me by clicking the link below.
9/27/09
Fall Out – Fitness in the Great Outdoors
This past week gave us some long awaited relief from the brutal heat we have had all summer. Now that fall and the associated cooler weather are here, it is a lot easier to think about outdoor activities.
Austin is a fabulous town for outdoor fitness. There are over 17,000 acres of land dedicated to parks, preserves, and greenbelts in Austin – all of them free.
The parks contain playgrounds, pools, hike and bike trails and trailside fitness equipment. They are open from 5 am to 10 pm every day of the year. Pool hours and availability vary, but some of the pools now remain open year round.
The greenbelts include the scenic Barton Creek Greenbelt – it is great for jogging, walking and biking and contains some really scenic and beautiful areas. For bikers and rollerbladers, there is the Veloway in South Austin – this is a 3.1 mile loop that is completely free of motorized traffic.
If you want to get a little exercise and some really beautiful views, run the steps to the top of Mt.Bonnell.
If you don’t have the time or inclination to take advantage of Austin’s many outdoor attractions, take advantage of the cooler weather closer to home. Go for a morning or evening run or walk in your neighborhood. Play tag or soccer with the kids in the back yard. Have a touch football game with the family at a holiday get together. Rake the leaves in your yard instead of using a leaf blower. Plant a fall garden or trim your trees and bushes. Mow your lawn without using the self-propelled function on the lawn mower.
The list of possible outdoor activities goes on and on. Pick one or several and work them into your healthy lifestyle. The cooler weather is finally here – it’s time to fall out!
Thanks for reading my blog. A link to the Austin Parks and Recreation web site is below – it has more information about a lot of the activities I discussed.
If you have any questions or need any information please click here to contact me. Have a great week!
9/20/09
Stretch your Limits with Flexibility Training
There is a lot of controversy over whether static stretching should be performed before working out. Popular sentiment holds that static stretching should not be performed prior to a workout because it will result in excessive lengthening of muscles and less than optimum performance as a consequence. This is good logic with one major exception – muscle imbalances caused by overactive muscles.
Muscle imbalances are very common and are generally caused by our lifestyles or movements we perform regularly. They result in movement compensations. Movement compensations occur when one of the muscles controlling a joint becomes overactive or tight. For example, if your lateral gastrocnemius (calf) muscle is tight, it will prevent your ankle from bending at the bottom of a squat. Your body compensates by turning your feet out. In some people this movement is barely perceptible – in others, it is quite pronounced. Another common compensation is knees moving inward during a squat – this is caused by overactive adductors. Both of these movement compensations are evident in the picture to the right.
Movement compensations subject your joints to unnatural strain, which can lead to injury. The good news is that, once identified, they can be corrected through corrective flexibility training.
Corrective flexibility is a two-step process. Step one is self-myofascial release to inhibit the overactive muscle. Self-myofascial release is typically performed with a foam roller (as pictured), but can also be performed with a tennis ball or something similar if you don’t have a roller handy. Roll the overactive muscle gently until you find a sore spot, then press on the sore spot firmly for twenty to thirty seconds. This breaks up knots in the muscle (similar to deep tissue massage) and helps relax the muscle so it can be stretched.
Step two is static stretching - this involves holding a gentle stretch on the overactive muscle for twenty to thirty seconds. A standing gastrocnemius and standing adductor stretch are pictured at right.
Corrective stretching should be performed before and after you work out. Over time, and coupled with a strengthening program for underactive muscles, corrective flexibility training will help you eliminate muscle imbalances and the resultant movement compensations. This will lead to better posture and safer exercise.
It is important to note that while we have focused today on two common movement compensations, they also occur in many other areas of the body.
Because movement compensations vary from person to person, there is no single corrective flexibility program that will work for everyone. It is important to understand how your body moves, and to design a program that is right for you. A health and fitness professional is trained to assess your body’s movement and design an appropriate corrective flexibility program. Click here if you would like me to help you with this. This evaluation is free of charge and no-obligation.
Thanks for reading my blog. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me by clicking the link below. I’ll be glad to help you out. Have a great week!
9/13/09
When Resistance Training - “Slow Down” To Build Endurance
Resistance training is a really important component of a well-rounded fitness program, and can be performed in a lot of different ways. Variations include exercises performed, angles worked, repetition counts, set counts and many others.
Today we will examine a tempo variation that can help build muscular endurance. If you are just beginning to weight train, using this tempo is a great way to start. If you have been weight training for a while it will provide an interesting and challenging variation to your routine.
One of the keys to building muscular endurance is time under tension. To understand the best way to maximize time under tension, let’s examine the three phases of movement in order of tension produced:
The Way Down: This is also known as the eccentric contraction. Think of this as the direction the weight would go if you didn’t support it. For example, this is the lowering movement during a pushup or squat. This part of the movement produces the most tension on the muscle.
The Hold at the Bottom: This is also known as the isometric hold. Examples would be the hold at the bottom of a pushup or squat right before you change directions and go back up. This part of the movement produces the second-most tension on the muscle. If you ever have any doubt about the amount of tension the isometric hold produces, try wall-sitting for a little while.
The Way Back Up: This is also known as the concentric contraction. While this is the part of the movement most people associate with weight lifting, it actually results in less tension on the muscle than the eccentric contraction or the isometric hold.
Now that we have looked at the three parts of a movement, let’s examine a tempo that maximizes time under tension.
Since most of the tension is placed on the muscle on the way down, you will perform that part of the exercise slowly. Try using a four count on the way down – it might help to say it out loud, “Down, 2, 3, 4. . .”
Once you reach the bottom of the movement, hold for a two count – again, it might help to say it out loud – “Hold, Two. . .” This would be just off the floor for a push up, or in the fully lowered position for a squat.
Finally (and it will seem like a long wait) you are ready to go back up. You can perform this part of the movement quickly. A one count will do. It might help to say, “one,” “up,” or just the rep number to pace this movement.
This is known as a 4-2-1 tempo.
Now that you have completed a repetition, let’s discuss repetition count and resistance you can use to improve muscular endurance.
Remember, your goal is to increase endurance. You will want to make sure form and tempo are perfect. You will also want to keep your rep count relatively high. You should use enough weight to complete 12-25 perfect repetitions at the 4-2-1 tempo. This is probably not going to be a lot of weight, and if you are performing body weight exercises you may have to regress them (for example perform pushups on your knees or on a counter) to complete a high enough rep count.
Depending on your fitness level you should do between one and three sets per workout, and try to workout two to three times per week.
I generally have my clients work in an unstable environment (stability ball, standing on one leg, etc.) while they are using this tempo – this has the added benefit of improving core stability.
Whatever your current fitness level or your fitness goals, building endurance is important. Whether you are just starting a resistance training program, or a long time weightlifting devotee looking for some variety to move past a plateau, remember - “Slow Down” for better endurance.
Thanks for reading my blog. If you have any questions, or need any additional information please click the link below to contact me. I’ll be happy to help in any way I can.
9/6/09
Getting in the Zone – Your Target Heart Rate Zones and Interval Training
One of the real keys to good health is a healthy and efficient cardio-respiratory system. Whether you are an avowed couch potato or an elite athlete, cardio-respiratory training will provide significant and lasting health benefits. Cardio exercise can be performed almost anywhere, and doesn’t require much of an investment. If you have a pair of athletic shoes or a bathing suit you are pretty much ready to go. Cardio doesn’t have to involve running or using a piece of expensive equipment. Anything that gets your heart rate up will work. My suggestion for beginning exercisers is to take a walk around the block, and build slowly from there, but you can also swim, bike, walk or run in the pool, play tennis, play tag with the kids – the list goes on and on.
You can do cardio all at once, or in shorter periods. In general, three ten-minute periods are as effective as one thirty-minute period so try to fit it in whenever and however you can. Try to do something to get your heart rate up for thirty to sixty minutes total every day.
Getting started with a cardio training program is pretty easy, but it helps to have a little bit of information up front. A couple of very key pieces of information to have, especially as you progress your program, are your predicted heart rate maximum and your target heart rate zones. These are age-based, and fairly accurate for most of the population.
Here is an important note: If you are taking a beta-blocker (many blood pressure medications are beta-blockers) or any other medication that lowers your heart rate do not use this method to calculate your predicted heart rate maximum or your target heart rate zones. If you are uncertain of the effect of any medication you are taking, contact your doctor. If your medication lowers your heart rate, click here – I will calculate your heart rate maximum and working zones for you.
If you are not taking a heart rate lowering medication, here is the calculation:
Heart Rate Maximum = 220 minus your age
Example: If you are 40 years old, your predicted heart rate maximum will be 180.
Here are the calculations for your working heart rate zones:
Beginner level: 50% of heart rate maximum
Zone 1 (recovery zone): 65% to 75% of heart rate maximum
Zone 2: 80% to 85% of heart rate maximum
Zone 3: 86% to 90% of heart rate maximum
Note: For most people the top of Zone 2 is also their anaerobic threshold. This is the point at which your muscles can no longer be fueled aerobically. The systems that fuel your muscles after you cross your anaerobic threshold will last for about 60 seconds, so you will burn out quickly past this point. You should not attempt to work in Zone 3 at all until you are very well conditioned.
At this point you might be thinking back to my statement about cardio training not requiring much of an investment, and wondering how to monitor your heart rate while you exercise. There are a number of very fine heart rate monitors available at most gyms and sporting goods stores, but most of these are pretty expensive.
Here is alternative method. It is called the “Talk Test,” and it is really pretty accurate. It is also free.
Talk Test
Zone 1: Working, but able to complete a sentence or sing a song
Zone 2: Able to complete a sentence, but only with effort. Probably breathing between words.
Zone 3: Breathing really hard and you don’t want to talk. Thinking about slowing down before you fall down!
Now that you know your working heart rate zones, what do you do with them? If you are just beginning to exercise, put them on the back burner for a while and work in zone 1 exclusively. Start slowly – work at about 50% of your heart rate maximum and gradually increase your activity level until you are able to stay in zone 1 comfortably for thirty to sixty consecutive minutes. Depending on your level of fitness and your level of activity this can take anywhere from one to three months. If you stick with it you will notice pretty quick improvement in your level of conditioning.
Once you are able to work successfully in zone 1, you might want to consider interval training. Interval training involves repeatedly raising your heart rate, then allowing it to recover during your workout. Most exercise machines have a pre-programmed interval training routine – this will work. If you don’t work on a machine, or if your machine doesn’t have one, here is a suggestion for a beginning interval training routine:
Warm up – 4 minutes
Zone 2 – 1 minute
Zone 1 – 5 minutes
Zone 2 – 1 minute
Zone 1 – 5 minutes
Zone 2 – 1 minute
Zone 1 – 5 minutes
Zone 2 – 1 minute
Zone 1 – 5 minutes
Cool down – 2 minutes
You will notice that the heart rate is raised into zone 2 for one minute intervals before returning to the recovery zone (zone 1). As your fitness level improves you can increase the length of time spent in zone 2 and reduce the time spent in your recovery zone. If you walk for cardio you can raise your heart rate by walking faster, walking up a hill or stairs or by jogging. If you are working on a machine, increase the resistance or the incline until the desired heart rate is achieved. It is very important to allow your heart rate to drop back into zone 1 during the recovery intervals. As your conditioning improves your heart rate will recover more quickly. You can eventually work up to include brief intervals in zone 3 (one minute or less), but as indicated earlier, you should be sure you are very well conditioned before you try this.
Interval training has a number of benefits. They include:
- Improved cardiac recovery and efficiency.
- Increased caloric burn
- Prevention of plateau effect
- Lower resting heart rate
- Elevated anaerobic threshold.
As your level of fitness allows consider adding interval training to your program. If you want a little help figuring out your heart rate zones here’s a link to a calculator.
Thanks for reading my blog. Please feel free to call or write if you have any questions. Click the link below for my contact information. Have a great week!
8/30/09
Throw Your Weight Around with Body Weight Exercises
Resistance training is essential to any complete fitness program, but for lot of people it invokes visions of large bulky machines, heavy weights, or some combination of both. In reality, it is both possible and advisable to incorporate body weight exercises into your resistance training program. Body weight exercises are generally simple to execute, extremely effective, and most can be progressed or regressed to meet your fitness needs. Best of all, most do not require any equipment, or much space. These exercises can help you maintain your active lifestyle when you are on the road for business or for pleasure, or just provide a nice change for your resistance training routine. They can be done in the back yard, the playground, the park or indoors. Here are a few especially effective exercises by muscle group:
Chest, shoulders and triceps:
Nothing beats a good old fashioned pushup for chest, shoulder and triceps development. The pushup is also a great core stabilization exercise. Pushups can be made easier (regressed) in a number of ways. They can be done on your knees, or by raising the head relative to the feet (as pictured). The higher your head is, the easier the pushup. You can put your hands on a bench, a table, a counter, or even up against the wall. Pushups can be made more difficult (progressed) by raising the feet relative to the head (by placing them on a stool, chair or stability ball). This also increases the shoulder involvement of the movement.
Back and biceps:
The ultimate back and biceps exercise is the chin up. In fact, one of the more popular machine exercises, the Lat Pulldown, is a regression of the chin up. The biggest problem most people have with chin ups is that they are extremely difficult to perform correctly. To perform a chin up you should start from a dead hang – do not jump up and use momentum to get your chin over the bar, and do not bounce at the bottom of the movement. You can get a chin up bar at most sporting goods stores, or you can use the monkey bars at the playground, or any branch you can reach in a tree. You can regress a chin up by performing it at an angle with your feet on the ground. Use the cross bar on a playscape (as pictured), a table, bench, doorway or even a fence post to perform this move. As with pushups, the higher your head is relative to your feet, the easier the movement is to perform. Chin ups can be performed with an overhand or underhand grip and varied hand spacing. If chin ups become too easy they can be performed with a backpack full of weights, or even one-handed.
Legs and Gluteals:
For leg and gluteal development I highly recommend squats. You can perform a squat on one leg or two. To maintain proper form, remember to keep your feet hip width apart and pointed straight ahead through the full range of motion. At the bottom of the movement (about chair height) your upper body should be parallel with your shins. Jump squats are also a very effective exercise that can help develop explosive strength in the quads. Be sure you maintain proper form throughout the movement and landing to avoid injury. Lunges are a variation of the squat (think of a lunge as a single leg squat with a kickstand) and are also a very effective exercise. For both squats and lunges focus on squeezing your gluteals at the top of the movement. Squats can be regressed by placing a stability ball between your back and the wall. This can also help you develop good form through the movement, and is highly recommended for beginning squatters.
Core:
Most people are familiar with crunches, which are a very good core exercise. Plank is also a terrific core exercise, and develops some of the smaller muscles in the core. To perform plank come up on your forearms and toes (as pictured), engage your core by drawing your navel toward your spine, and maintain the position for as long as you can. Try to keep your hips level, and be sure to breathe while performing the movement. Plank can be regressed by performing it on your hands and toes (pushup position) or knees and forearms. You can progress plank by moving slowly up and down. Other core exercises include leg raises, mountain climbers and reverse crunches.
Those are a few body weight exercises you can try. There are many, many more. So, next time you find yourself away from the weight room for whatever the reason, don’t give up on resistance training. Instead, throw your weight around a little bit. You’ll be glad you did.
I want to thank my boys for posing for the pictures I used to illustrate these moves, and for providing inspiration for this blog by constantly finding new and creative ways to use the yard, the trees and the playscape to get exercise and have fun.
Thanks for reading my blog. If you have any questions, or need any exercise ideas please click the link below. I’ll be glad to help you out.
8/23/09
“Baby Steps” to a Healthier Lifestyle
I got in shape relatively late in life, and after a number of very sedentary years. I didn’t really plan to do it – I just kind of fell into it while trying to keep up with my son as he rode around the block on his bike. As a consequence, my first “workout” – a run around the block - lasted about ten minutes. It wasn’t much, but it was a start, and I ultimately ended up making some pretty significant and lasting lifestyle changes. Looking back, I think I was lucky that it happened the way it did. If I had planned my first workout I am pretty sure my “type A” personality would have made me bite off more than I could chew, and I might not have ever done my second workout. If you are planning to make a lifestyle change, you might want to consider a measured approach – my wife calls it taking “baby steps.”
Consider these suggestions . . .
1. Set Goals. Whatever your long term goal is, plan very small and reachable milestones to help you get there. Track them and adjust along the way as needed. Try to make sure your goals are achievable and sustainable – for example, if you are trying to lose weight, half a pound to two pounds per week is achievable and sustainable. Ten pounds per week is not – at least for the average person under average conditions. Trying to do too much too fast can lead to disappointment, burn out and injury.
2. Think lifestyle - not just diet or exercise. Diets and exercise programs come and go, but a lifestyle change can last a lifetime. Make sure your lifestyle change is meaningful, but also make sure it is at a pace you can sustain.
3. Exercise – start slowly, but start. Walking is great exercise and an excellent start on a cardio program for beginners. When it comes to resistance training, focus on core strength and stability before you start trying to sling around a lot of weight. If you have a stability ball and a couple of light (3 to 5 pound) dumbbells you have all you need for the first month or so of your resistance training program. If you don’t know how to set up a comprehensive exercise program ask a certified personal trainer. Most of the trainers I know (and most gym trainers) will do a free consultation and help get you started. I certainly will.
4. Find the time. Exercise when you can - don’t wait until you have time to do a “full” workout. It would be great if everyone had a solid thirty to sixty minute block every day that could be dedicated to exercise, but most people just don’t. Try to find creative ways to exercise on days when you can’t set aside a long period of time for a workout. Here are a few ideas:
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator
- Park way out in the store parking lot and “fast walk” into the store
- Don’t use the “self-propelled” function on your lawn mower
- Throw in a few sets of squats, crunches, pushups or jumping jacks while you are watching TV
Those are just a few ideas – I’m sure you can think of many more.
5. Think outside the fast food box. Baby steps work for nutrition as well. If you eat fast food several times a week (by choice or by circumstance) giving it up entirely might not be a workable approach for you. Instead, try making some modifications to your order. For example, try getting the grilled chicken sandwich instead of the double meat burger, and the side salad instead of the fries. You will be amazed at the difference it will make. Here are the numbers on that change (courtesy of Wendy’s nutritional information site – the link is below):
Double Meat Burger (w/everything and cheese): 700 calories, 40 grams of fat (17 grams saturated)
Medium Fries: 420 calories, 20 grams of fat (4 grams saturated)
Small Coke: 160 calories
Total: 1280 calories, 60 grams of fat (21 grams saturated)
Ultimate Chicken Grill Sandwich: 320 calories, 7 grams of fat (1.5 grams saturated)
Side Salad: 35 calories
Fat Free French dressing: 70 calories
Minute Maid Light Lemonade: 10 Calories
Total: 435 calories, 7 grams of fat (1.5 grams saturated)
By making this change you reduce your intake by 845 calories and 53 grams of fat! You reduce your saturated fat intake by 19.5 grams! If you remember the weight loss math we did last week, that’s a pound of calories saved in less than five meals.
Nutritional information is available for almost all fast food restaurants, so if you know you are going to have to eat fast food it really pays to do a little research up front. I did this when I was making my lifestyle changes and it really worked. As your lifestyle changes progress, you will probably find yourself naturally moving toward healthier meal choices and away from fast food altogether.
These are just a few ideas to help you get started on the road to a healthier lifestyle.
The important thing to remember is that doing anything is better than doing nothing.
Why not try to take a few “baby steps” toward a better lifestyle this week? You’ll be glad you did.
Thanks for reading my blog. If you have any questions or need any help getting started please feel free to click on the link below. I’ll be glad to help you out.
Wendy’s Nutritional Information link
http://www.wendys.com/food/pdf/us/nutrition.pdf
8/16/09
Weight Loss – Cutting Through the Hype
It seems like every time I turn on the radio or television I hear about a new sure-fire way to lose weight. Sometimes it’s a drug, sometimes it’s a diet, sometimes it’s a machine or exercise routine. All of them seem to have one thing in common – they promise quick and easy weight loss. Most of them feature interviews with people who relate their incredible results using the product.
If you look closely at the TV ads during these testimonials you will see (in very small print) a statement to the effect that the results described are not typical, and that proper nutrition and exercise are required for effective weight loss.
The unfortunate fact is that there is no magic pill, machine or exercise routine that is going to make it easy to lose weight. That having been said, the principle involved in weight loss is relatively simple. In order to effectively lose weight, you must use more calories than you consume.
Here is the math: 1 pound equals approximately 3500 calories. Under normal conditions, if you use 3500 more calories than you consume, you will lose a pound. You can do this by modifying your diet, exercising more, or, ideally, a combination of both. Not too complicated, right?
Here is the tricky part. Your body is designed, and constantly working to prepare you for the next famine. It will respond to hunger and fatigue by storing energy. Unfortunately, your body stores energy as fat. To further complicate the situation, if your body believes you are not getting enough food or rest, it will shut down your metabolism to conserve energy. This can make losing weight exceedingly difficult unless you compensate for these internal systems, by feeding and resting your body appropriately.
Here are some tips:
Eat more but less: Rather than try to reduce calories by skipping meals (which results in the effects described above) try eating more often, but less at each meal. Try to eat four to six times per day.
Eat a well balanced diet: In general, your diet should consist of 15%-30% protein, 50%-70% carbohydrates and 10%-30% fat. These ranges are pretty broad – if you see a diet plan that falls outside of them, you probably want to avoid it.
Eat the right kind of fat: Try to eat monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats (e.g. nuts, vegetable, canola and olive oils). Try to minimize saturated fats (e.g. butter, cheese, fatty meats) in your diet. Avoid trans-fats altogether (fast foods and snack foods usually contain trans-fats).
Eat a lot of fiber: Fiber helps you feel full longer, and is essential to proper digestion. Fruits and vegetables are an excellent source of fiber. They taste good too.
Drink a lot of water: Water is critical to good health and helps keep your metabolic engine running. Make sure you stay well hydrated – especially during exercise.
Keep a food log: A recent study showed you are six times more likely to lose weight if you keep a food log. That’s a pretty compelling reason to keep one.
Phone a friend: Try to involve your friends and family in your plan to lose weight. Find a weight loss partner – it will help get you to exercise on days when you really don’t feel like it, and will help you stick to your nutritional plan. Ask the family to plan healthy meals on days when you visit. Who knows - you might motivate them to start eating healthier too.
Stick with it: Learn to expect and accept minor setbacks – don’t let them knock you off your plan. It might help to build in “cheat days” when you allow yourself a special treat. It’s better to plan a couple of chocolate chip cookies a week into your routine than to deprive yourself for a month and binge on a whole package.
Exercise: Plan a comprehensive exercise routine and stick with it. You don’t need to spend a lot of money, buy a lot of equipment or spend hours a day grinding through it. Try to move your body and get your heart rate up for thirty to sixty minutes every day. Do something fun and make it a part of your new lifestyle. A pound of muscle will burn 35-45 more calories per day than a pound of fat, so make sure you incorporate some resistance training into your program. If you have any questions or need any help designing your program click here. I will help you get started at no charge or obligation.
Get some help: There is a wealth of nutritional information available. There are weight loss groups, dieticians and web-based resources you can use to help you determine your individual nutritional requirements. Pick the method that works best for you, and stick with it. My personal favorite is www.mypyramid.gov. It is a USDA-sponsored web site that contains a huge amount of information as well as a number of interactive tools you can use to design a nutritional program that is right for you. Best of all, it’s completely free.
Those are a few tips to get you started. As Confucius said, “A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.” Why not take your first step today?
Thanks for reading my blog. If you have any questions please feel free to click on the link below and contact me – I’ll be glad to help you out.
8/9/09
Body Mass Index – Do you know the Score?
The other day at a Health Fair, a young man approached my table and asked me to figure out his Body Mass Index score. He had been told previously that his Body Mass Index (BMI for short) was too high, and that he needed to lose some weight. This came as a surprise to him since he thought he was in great shape (he clearly was), and since he was lifting weights and actually wanted to gain a few more pounds of muscle.
He was 6’4” tall and weighed 225 pounds, so his BMI score was 27.4 – technically in the “mildly obese” range. However, I was able to reassure him that his weight was fine (even if he did gain a few more pounds) and not to be concerned about his BMI score. Why was I able to do that with confidence?
BMI is a proportional measure of your height and weight. To calculate it, take your weight in kilograms and divide it by your height in meters squared (Weight (kg) / Height (m) squared). For those of you who prefer to avoid the metric system, take your weight in pounds, divide it by your height in inches squared and multiply the result by 703 ((Weight (lbs) / height (inches) squared) *703).
Compare your score to the scale below to determine whether your weight is appropriate for your height.
Normal: 18.5 – 24.9
Mildly Obese: 25 – 29.9
Moderately Obese: 30 – 35
Severely Obese: >35
Generally speaking, a BMI score greater than 25 can put you at risk for obesity-related health problems.
BMI is not a foolproof measurement. It is not accurate if you are heavily muscled, have extremely low body fat, or both. This was the case with the young man I described above, and is the case for many athletes in strength-oriented sports (football, power-lifting, body building, etc.). However, for most of the population it can be useful in setting a fitness baseline, and in determining an appropriate target weight.
Here’s a link to a calculator you can use to determine your Body Mass Index. Just plug in your height in inches and your weight in pounds and hit the "enter" key – your BMI will calculate automatically.
Please feel free to call or e-mail with any questions. Just click on the link below for contact information. Thanks for reading my fitness blog.
8/2/09
To Maximize Stability, Think. . . . Unstable!
My wife tried this move in the picture at the right, just to see if she could do it (she could). It got me thinking about the importance of core strength and balance. By the way, that is a pretty advanced move and shouldn’t be tried until your balance is excellent.
Many people think of resistance training as the performance of stable exercises and isolation of muscle groups. A good example of this is the bench press or machine chest press. The bench stabilizes the body so the prime movers (chest and triceps) can be isolated and exercised.
This is a very effective way to isolate and train muscle groups. However, to insure maximum core strength and stability your routine should include exercises performed in an unstable environment. This forces the core to stabilize the body, strengthening it and improving balance. It also engages many muscle groups (muscle group recruitment) during the exercise, and trains the body to effectively use all of these muscles together.
Here are some examples of traditional stable exercises for major muscle groups, along with their unstable counterparts:
Chest
Stable – Bench Press or machine Chest Press
Unstable – Pushup or Ball Chest Press
Shoulders
Stable – Seated Military Press or Machine Overhead Press
Unstable – Single Leg Overhead Press or Single Leg Front Lateral Raise
Some people find it hard to believe, but improving core strength and balance will allow you to do more work in any environment – stable or unstable. It also helps you hold proper form during exercises and helps prevent injury.
To create a strong foundation for movement, ideally, resistance training should be performed in an unstable environment and with relatively low weight before progressing to heavier weights and more stable exercises.
Remember, just as it is easier to build a strong house on a solid foundation, it is easier to build a strong body on a stable core.
Please feel free to call or e-mail (click the link below) if you have any questions or would like more examples of unstable exercises. I’ll be glad to help you out.
Thanks for visiting the R.E.A.L. Fitness Blog
8/30/09
Throw Your Weight Around with Body Weight Exercises
Resistance training is essential to any complete fitness program, but for lot of people it invokes visions of large bulky machines, heavy weights, or some combination of both. In reality, it is both possible and advisable to incorporate body weight exercises into your resistance training program. Body weight exercises are generally simple to execute, extremely effective, and most can be progressed or regressed to meet your fitness needs. Best of all, most do not require any equipment, or much space. These exercises can help you maintain your active lifestyle when you are on the road for business or for pleasure, or just provide a nice change for your resistance training routine. They can be done in the back yard, the playground, the park or indoors. Here are a few especially effective exercises by muscle group:
Chest, shoulders and triceps:
Nothing beats a good old fashioned pushup for chest, shoulder and triceps development. The pushup is also a great core stabilization exercise. Pushups can be made easier (regressed) in a number of ways. They can be done on your knees, or by raising the head relative to the feet (as pictured). The higher your head is, the easier the pushup. You can put your hands on a bench, a table, a counter, or even up against the wall. Pushups can be made more difficult (progressed) by raising the feet relative to the head (by placing them on a stool, chair or stability ball). This also increases the shoulder involvement of the movement.
Back and biceps:
The ultimate back and biceps exercise is the chin up. In fact, one of the more popular machine exercises, the Lat Pulldown, is a regression of the chin up. The biggest problem most people have with chin ups is that they are extremely difficult to perform correctly. To perform a chin up you should start from a dead hang – do not jump up and use momentum to get your chin over the bar, and do not bounce at the bottom of the movement. You can get a chin up bar at most sporting goods stores, or you can use the monkey bars at the playground, or any branch you can reach in a tree. You can regress a chin up by performing it at an angle with your feet on the ground. Use the cross bar on a playscape (as pictured), a table, bench, doorway or even a fence post to perform this move. As with pushups, the higher your head is relative to your feet, the easier the movement is to perform. Chin ups can be performed with an overhand or underhand grip and varied hand spacing. If chin ups become too easy they can be performed with a backpack full of weights, or even one-handed.
Legs and Gluteals:
For leg and gluteal development I highly recommend squats. You can perform a squat on one leg or two. To maintain proper form, remember to keep your feet hip width apart and pointed straight ahead through the full range of motion. At the bottom of the movement (about chair height) your upper body should be parallel with your shins. Jump squats are also a very effective exercise that can help develop explosive strength in the quads. Be sure you maintain proper form throughout the movement and landing to avoid injury. Lunges are a variation of the squat (think of a lunge as a single leg squat with a kickstand) and are also a very effective exercise. For both squats and lunges focus on squeezing your gluteals at the top of the movement. Squats can be regressed by placing a stability ball between your back and the wall. This can also help you develop good form through the movement, and is highly recommended for beginning squatters.
Core:
Most people are familiar with crunches, which are a very good core exercise. Plank is also a terrific core exercise, and develops some of the smaller muscles in the core. To perform plank come up on your forearms and toes (as pictured), engage your core by drawing your navel toward your spine, and maintain the position for as long as you can. Try to keep your hips level, and be sure to breathe while performing the movement. Plank can be regressed by performing it on your hands and toes (pushup position) or knees and forearms. You can progress plank by moving slowly up and down. Other core exercises include leg raises, mountain climbers and reverse crunches.
Those are a few body weight exercises you can try. There are many, many more. So, next time you find yourself away from the weight room for whatever the reason, don’t give up on resistance training. Instead, throw your weight around a little bit. You’ll be glad you did.
I want to thank my boys for posing for the pictures I used to illustrate these moves, and for providing inspiration for this blog by constantly finding new and creative ways to use the yard, the trees and the playscape to get exercise and have fun.
Thanks for reading my blog. If you have any questions, or need any exercise ideas please click the link below. I’ll be glad to help you out.
8/23/09
“Baby Steps” to a Healthier Lifestyle
I got in shape relatively late in life, and after a number of very sedentary years. I didn’t really plan to do it – I just kind of fell into it while trying to keep up with my son as he rode around the block on his bike. As a consequence, my first “workout” – a run around the block - lasted about ten minutes. It wasn’t much, but it was a start, and I ultimately ended up making some pretty significant and lasting lifestyle changes. Looking back, I think I was lucky that it happened the way it did. If I had planned my first workout I am pretty sure my “type A” personality would have made me bite off more than I could chew, and I might not have ever done my second workout. If you are planning to make a lifestyle change, you might want to consider a measured approach – my wife calls it taking “baby steps.”
Consider these suggestions . . .
1. Set Goals. Whatever your long term goal is, plan very small and reachable milestones to help you get there. Track them and adjust along the way as needed. Try to make sure your goals are achievable and sustainable – for example, if you are trying to lose weight, half a pound to two pounds per week is achievable and sustainable. Ten pounds per week is not – at least for the average person under average conditions. Trying to do too much too fast can lead to disappointment, burn out and injury.
2. Think lifestyle - not just diet or exercise. Diets and exercise programs come and go, but a lifestyle change can last a lifetime. Make sure your lifestyle change is meaningful, but also make sure it is at a pace you can sustain.
3. Exercise – start slowly, but start. Walking is great exercise and an excellent start on a cardio program for beginners. When it comes to resistance training, focus on core strength and stability before you start trying to sling around a lot of weight. If you have a stability ball and a couple of light (3 to 5 pound) dumbbells you have all you need for the first month or so of your resistance training program. If you don’t know how to set up a comprehensive exercise program ask a certified personal trainer. Most of the trainers I know (and most gym trainers) will do a free consultation and help get you started. I certainly will.
4. Find the time. Exercise when you can - don’t wait until you have time to do a “full” workout. It would be great if everyone had a solid thirty to sixty minute block every day that could be dedicated to exercise, but most people just don’t. Try to find creative ways to exercise on days when you can’t set aside a long period of time for a workout. Here are a few ideas:
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator
- Park way out in the store parking lot and “fast walk” into the store
- Don’t use the “self-propelled” function on your lawn mower
- Throw in a few sets of squats, crunches, pushups or jumping jacks while you are watching TV
Those are just a few ideas – I’m sure you can think of many more.
5. Think outside the fast food box. Baby steps work for nutrition as well. If you eat fast food several times a week (by choice or by circumstance) giving it up entirely might not be a workable approach for you. Instead, try making some modifications to your order. For example, try getting the grilled chicken sandwich instead of the double meat burger, and the side salad instead of the fries. You will be amazed at the difference it will make. Here are the numbers on that change (courtesy of Wendy’s nutritional information site – the link is below):
Double Meat Burger (w/everything and cheese): 700 calories, 40 grams of fat (17 grams saturated)
Medium Fries: 420 calories, 20 grams of fat (4 grams saturated)
Small Coke: 160 calories
Total: 1280 calories, 60 grams of fat (21 grams saturated)
Ultimate Chicken Grill Sandwich: 320 calories, 7 grams of fat (1.5 grams saturated)
Side Salad: 35 calories
Fat Free French dressing: 70 calories
Minute Maid Light Lemonade: 10 Calories
Total: 435 calories, 7 grams of fat (1.5 grams saturated)
By making this change you reduce your intake by 845 calories and 53 grams of fat! You reduce your saturated fat intake by 19.5 grams! If you remember the weight loss math we did last week, that’s a pound of calories saved in less than five meals.
Nutritional information is available for almost all fast food restaurants, so if you know you are going to have to eat fast food it really pays to do a little research up front. I did this when I was making my lifestyle changes and it really worked. As your lifestyle changes progress, you will probably find yourself naturally moving toward healthier meal choices and away from fast food altogether.
These are just a few ideas to help you get started on the road to a healthier lifestyle.
The important thing to remember is that doing anything is better than doing nothing.
Why not try to take a few “baby steps” toward a better lifestyle this week? You’ll be glad you did.
Thanks for reading my blog. If you have any questions or need any help getting started please feel free to click on the link below. I’ll be glad to help you out.
Wendy’s Nutritional Information link
http://www.wendys.com/food/pdf/us/nutrition.pdf
8/16/09
Weight Loss – Cutting Through the Hype
It seems like every time I turn on the radio or television I hear about a new sure-fire way to lose weight. Sometimes it’s a drug, sometimes it’s a diet, sometimes it’s a machine or exercise routine. All of them seem to have one thing in common – they promise quick and easy weight loss. Most of them feature interviews with people who relate their incredible results using the product.
If you look closely at the TV ads during these testimonials you will see (in very small print) a statement to the effect that the results described are not typical, and that proper nutrition and exercise are required for effective weight loss.
The unfortunate fact is that there is no magic pill, machine or exercise routine that is going to make it easy to lose weight. That having been said, the principle involved in weight loss is relatively simple. In order to effectively lose weight, you must use more calories than you consume.
Here is the math: 1 pound equals approximately 3500 calories. Under normal conditions, if you use 3500 more calories than you consume, you will lose a pound. You can do this by modifying your diet, exercising more, or, ideally, a combination of both. Not too complicated, right?
Here is the tricky part. Your body is designed, and constantly working to prepare you for the next famine. It will respond to hunger and fatigue by storing energy. Unfortunately, your body stores energy as fat. To further complicate the situation, if your body believes you are not getting enough food or rest, it will shut down your metabolism to conserve energy. This can make losing weight exceedingly difficult unless you compensate for these internal systems, by feeding and resting your body appropriately.
Here are some tips:
Eat more but less: Rather than try to reduce calories by skipping meals (which results in the effects described above) try eating more often, but less at each meal. Try to eat four to six times per day.
Eat a well balanced diet: In general, your diet should consist of 15%-30% protein, 50%-70% carbohydrates and 10%-30% fat. These ranges are pretty broad – if you see a diet plan that falls outside of them, you probably want to avoid it.
Eat the right kind of fat: Try to eat monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats (e.g. nuts, vegetable, canola and olive oils). Try to minimize saturated fats (e.g. butter, cheese, fatty meats) in your diet. Avoid trans-fats altogether (fast foods and snack foods usually contain trans-fats).
Eat a lot of fiber: Fiber helps you feel full longer, and is essential to proper digestion. Fruits and vegetables are an excellent source of fiber. They taste good too.
Drink a lot of water: Water is critical to good health and helps keep your metabolic engine running. Make sure you stay well hydrated – especially during exercise.
Keep a food log: A recent study showed you are six times more likely to lose weight if you keep a food log. That’s a pretty compelling reason to keep one.
Phone a friend: Try to involve your friends and family in your plan to lose weight. Find a weight loss partner – it will help get you to exercise on days when you really don’t feel like it, and will help you stick to your nutritional plan. Ask the family to plan healthy meals on days when you visit. Who knows - you might motivate them to start eating healthier too.
Stick with it: Learn to expect and accept minor setbacks – don’t let them knock you off your plan. It might help to build in “cheat days” when you allow yourself a special treat. It’s better to plan a couple of chocolate chip cookies a week into your routine than to deprive yourself for a month and binge on a whole package.
Exercise: Plan a comprehensive exercise routine and stick with it. You don’t need to spend a lot of money, buy a lot of equipment or spend hours a day grinding through it. Try to move your body and get your heart rate up for thirty to sixty minutes every day. Do something fun and make it a part of your new lifestyle. A pound of muscle will burn 35-45 more calories per day than a pound of fat, so make sure you incorporate some resistance training into your program. If you have any questions or need any help designing your program click here. I will help you get started at no charge or obligation.
Get some help: There is a wealth of nutritional information available. There are weight loss groups, dieticians and web-based resources you can use to help you determine your individual nutritional requirements. Pick the method that works best for you, and stick with it. My personal favorite is www.mypyramid.gov. It is a USDA-sponsored web site that contains a huge amount of information as well as a number of interactive tools you can use to design a nutritional program that is right for you. Best of all, it’s completely free.
Those are a few tips to get you started. As Confucius said, “A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.” Why not take your first step today?
Thanks for reading my blog. If you have any questions please feel free to click on the link below and contact me – I’ll be glad to help you out.
8/9/09
Body Mass Index – Do you know the Score?
The other day at a Health Fair, a young man approached my table and asked me to figure out his Body Mass Index score. He had been told previously that his Body Mass Index (BMI for short) was too high, and that he needed to lose some weight. This came as a surprise to him since he thought he was in great shape (he clearly was), and since he was lifting weights and actually wanted to gain a few more pounds of muscle.
He was 6’4” tall and weighed 225 pounds, so his BMI score was 27.4 – technically in the “mildly obese” range. However, I was able to reassure him that his weight was fine (even if he did gain a few more pounds) and not to be concerned about his BMI score. Why was I able to do that with confidence?
BMI is a proportional measure of your height and weight. To calculate it, take your weight in kilograms and divide it by your height in meters squared (Weight (kg) / Height (m) squared). For those of you who prefer to avoid the metric system, take your weight in pounds, divide it by your height in inches squared and multiply the result by 703 ((Weight (lbs) / height (inches) squared) *703).
Compare your score to the scale below to determine whether your weight is appropriate for your height.
Normal: 18.5 – 24.9
Mildly Obese: 25 – 29.9
Moderately Obese: 30 – 35
Severely Obese: >35
Generally speaking, a BMI score greater than 25 can put you at risk for obesity-related health problems.
BMI is not a foolproof measurement. It is not accurate if you are heavily muscled, have extremely low body fat, or both. This was the case with the young man I described above, and is the case for many athletes in strength-oriented sports (football, power-lifting, body building, etc.). However, for most of the population it can be useful in setting a fitness baseline, and in determining an appropriate target weight.
Here’s a link to a calculator you can use to determine your Body Mass Index. Just plug in your height in inches and your weight in pounds and hit the "enter" key – your BMI will calculate automatically.
Please feel free to call or e-mail with any questions. Just click on the link below for contact information. Thanks for reading my fitness blog.
8/2/09
To Maximize Stability, Think. . . . Unstable!
My wife tried this move in the picture at the right, just to see if she could do it (she could). It got me thinking about the importance of core strength and balance. By the way, that is a pretty advanced move and shouldn’t be tried until your balance is excellent.
Many people think of resistance training as the performance of stable exercises and isolation of muscle groups. A good example of this is the bench press or machine chest press. The bench stabilizes the body so the prime movers (chest and triceps) can be isolated and exercised.
This is a very effective way to isolate and train muscle groups. However, to insure maximum core strength and stability your routine should include exercises performed in an unstable environment. This forces the core to stabilize the body, strengthening it and improving balance. It also engages many muscle groups (muscle group recruitment) during the exercise, and trains the body to effectively use all of these muscles together.
Here are some examples of traditional stable exercises for major muscle groups, along with their unstable counterparts:
Chest
Stable – Bench Press or machine Chest Press
Unstable – Pushup or Ball Chest Press
Shoulders
Stable – Seated Military Press or Machine Overhead Press
Unstable – Single Leg Overhead Press or Single Leg Front Lateral Raise
Some people find it hard to believe, but improving core strength and balance will allow you to do more work in any environment – stable or unstable. It also helps you hold proper form during exercises and helps prevent injury.
To create a strong foundation for movement, ideally, resistance training should be performed in an unstable environment and with relatively low weight before progressing to heavier weights and more stable exercises.
Remember, just as it is easier to build a strong house on a solid foundation, it is easier to build a strong body on a stable core.
Please feel free to call or e-mail (click the link below) if you have any questions or would like more examples of unstable exercises. I’ll be glad to help you out.
Thanks for visiting the R.E.A.L. Fitness Blog
9/20/09
Stretch your Limits with Flexibility Training
There is a lot of controversy over whether static stretching should be performed before working out. Popular sentiment holds that static stretching should not be performed prior to a workout because it will result in excessive lengthening of muscles and less than optimum performance as a consequence. This is good logic with one major exception – muscle imbalances caused by overactive muscles.
Muscle imbalances are very common and are generally caused by our lifestyles or movements we perform regularly. They result in movement compensations. Movement compensations occur when one of the muscles controlling a joint becomes overactive or tight. For example, if your lateral gastrocnemius (calf) muscle is tight, it will prevent your ankle from bending at the bottom of a squat. Your body compensates by turning your feet out. In some people this movement is barely perceptible – in others, it is quite pronounced. Another common compensation is knees moving inward during a squat – this is caused by overactive adductors. Both of these movement compensations are evident in the picture to the right.
Movement compensations subject your joints to unnatural strain, which can lead to injury. The good news is that, once identified, they can be corrected through corrective flexibility training.
Corrective flexibility is a two-step process. Step one is self-myofascial release to inhibit the overactive muscle. Self-myofascial release is typically performed with a foam roller (as pictured), but can also be performed with a tennis ball or something similar if you don’t have a roller handy. Roll the overactive muscle gently until you find a sore spot, then press on the sore spot firmly for twenty to thirty seconds. This breaks up knots in the muscle (similar to deep tissue massage) and helps relax the muscle so it can be stretched.
Step two is static stretching - this involves holding a gentle stretch on the overactive muscle for twenty to thirty seconds. A standing gastrocnemius and standing adductor stretch are pictured at right.
Corrective stretching should be performed before and after you work out. Over time, and coupled with a strengthening program for underactive muscles, corrective flexibility training will help you eliminate muscle imbalances and the resultant movement compensations. This will lead to better posture and safer exercise.
It is important to note that while we have focused today on two common movement compensations, they also occur in many other areas of the body.
Because movement compensations vary from person to person, there is no single corrective flexibility program that will work for everyone. It is important to understand how your body moves, and to design a program that is right for you. A health and fitness professional is trained to assess your body’s movement and design an appropriate corrective flexibility program. Click here if you would like me to help you with this. This evaluation is free of charge and no-obligation.
Thanks for reading my blog. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me by clicking the link below. I’ll be glad to help you out. Have a great week!
9/13/09
When Resistance Training - “Slow Down” To Build Endurance
Resistance training is a really important component of a well-rounded fitness program, and can be performed in a lot of different ways. Variations include exercises performed, angles worked, repetition counts, set counts and many others.
Today we will examine a tempo variation that can help build muscular endurance. If you are just beginning to weight train, using this tempo is a great way to start. If you have been weight training for a while it will provide an interesting and challenging variation to your routine.
One of the keys to building muscular endurance is time under tension. To understand the best way to maximize time under tension, let’s examine the three phases of movement in order of tension produced:
The Way Down: This is also known as the eccentric contraction. Think of this as the direction the weight would go if you didn’t support it. For example, this is the lowering movement during a pushup or squat. This part of the movement produces the most tension on the muscle.
The Hold at the Bottom: This is also known as the isometric hold. Examples would be the hold at the bottom of a pushup or squat right before you change directions and go back up. This part of the movement produces the second-most tension on the muscle. If you ever have any doubt about the amount of tension the isometric hold produces, try wall-sitting for a little while.
The Way Back Up: This is also known as the concentric contraction. While this is the part of the movement most people associate with weight lifting, it actually results in less tension on the muscle than the eccentric contraction or the isometric hold.
Now that we have looked at the three parts of a movement, let’s examine a tempo that maximizes time under tension.
Since most of the tension is placed on the muscle on the way down, you will perform that part of the exercise slowly. Try using a four count on the way down – it might help to say it out loud, “Down, 2, 3, 4. . .”
Once you reach the bottom of the movement, hold for a two count – again, it might help to say it out loud – “Hold, Two. . .” This would be just off the floor for a push up, or in the fully lowered position for a squat.
Finally (and it will seem like a long wait) you are ready to go back up. You can perform this part of the movement quickly. A one count will do. It might help to say, “one,” “up,” or just the rep number to pace this movement.
This is known as a 4-2-1 tempo.
Now that you have completed a repetition, let’s discuss repetition count and resistance you can use to improve muscular endurance.
Remember, your goal is to increase endurance. You will want to make sure form and tempo are perfect. You will also want to keep your rep count relatively high. You should use enough weight to complete 12-25 perfect repetitions at the 4-2-1 tempo. This is probably not going to be a lot of weight, and if you are performing body weight exercises you may have to regress them (for example perform pushups on your knees or on a counter) to complete a high enough rep count.
Depending on your fitness level you should do between one and three sets per workout, and try to workout two to three times per week.
I generally have my clients work in an unstable environment (stability ball, standing on one leg, etc.) while they are using this tempo – this has the added benefit of improving core stability.
Whatever your current fitness level or your fitness goals, building endurance is important. Whether you are just starting a resistance training program, or a long time weightlifting devotee looking for some variety to move past a plateau, remember - “Slow Down” for better endurance.
Thanks for reading my blog. If you have any questions, or need any additional information please click the link below to contact me. I’ll be happy to help in any way I can.
9/6/09
Getting in the Zone – Your Target Heart Rate Zones and Interval Training
One of the real keys to good health is a healthy and efficient cardio-respiratory system. Whether you are an avowed couch potato or an elite athlete, cardio-respiratory training will provide significant and lasting health benefits. Cardio exercise can be performed almost anywhere, and doesn’t require much of an investment. If you have a pair of athletic shoes or a bathing suit you are pretty much ready to go. Cardio doesn’t have to involve running or using a piece of expensive equipment. Anything that gets your heart rate up will work. My suggestion for beginning exercisers is to take a walk around the block, and build slowly from there, but you can also swim, bike, walk or run in the pool, play tennis, play tag with the kids – the list goes on and on.
You can do cardio all at once, or in shorter periods. In general, three ten-minute periods are as effective as one thirty-minute period so try to fit it in whenever and however you can. Try to do something to get your heart rate up for thirty to sixty minutes total every day.
Getting started with a cardio training program is pretty easy, but it helps to have a little bit of information up front. A couple of very key pieces of information to have, especially as you progress your program, are your predicted heart rate maximum and your target heart rate zones. These are age-based, and fairly accurate for most of the population.
Here is an important note: If you are taking a beta-blocker (many blood pressure medications are beta-blockers) or any other medication that lowers your heart rate do not use this method to calculate your predicted heart rate maximum or your target heart rate zones. If you are uncertain of the effect of any medication you are taking, contact your doctor. If your medication lowers your heart rate, click here – I will calculate your heart rate maximum and working zones for you.
If you are not taking a heart rate lowering medication, here is the calculation:
Heart Rate Maximum = 220 minus your age
Example: If you are 40 years old, your predicted heart rate maximum will be 180.
Here are the calculations for your working heart rate zones:
Beginner level: 50% of heart rate maximum
Zone 1 (recovery zone): 65% to 75% of heart rate maximum
Zone 2: 80% to 85% of heart rate maximum
Zone 3: 86% to 90% of heart rate maximum
Note: For most people the top of Zone 2 is also their anaerobic threshold. This is the point at which your muscles can no longer be fueled aerobically. The systems that fuel your muscles after you cross your anaerobic threshold will last for about 60 seconds, so you will burn out quickly past this point. You should not attempt to work in Zone 3 at all until you are very well conditioned.
At this point you might be thinking back to my statement about cardio training not requiring much of an investment, and wondering how to monitor your heart rate while you exercise. There are a number of very fine heart rate monitors available at most gyms and sporting goods stores, but most of these are pretty expensive.
Here is alternative method. It is called the “Talk Test,” and it is really pretty accurate. It is also free.
Talk Test
Zone 1: Working, but able to complete a sentence or sing a song
Zone 2: Able to complete a sentence, but only with effort. Probably breathing between words.
Zone 3: Breathing really hard and you don’t want to talk. Thinking about slowing down before you fall down!
Now that you know your working heart rate zones, what do you do with them? If you are just beginning to exercise, put them on the back burner for a while and work in zone 1 exclusively. Start slowly – work at about 50% of your heart rate maximum and gradually increase your activity level until you are able to stay in zone 1 comfortably for thirty to sixty consecutive minutes. Depending on your level of fitness and your level of activity this can take anywhere from one to three months. If you stick with it you will notice pretty quick improvement in your level of conditioning.
Once you are able to work successfully in zone 1, you might want to consider interval training. Interval training involves repeatedly raising your heart rate, then allowing it to recover during your workout. Most exercise machines have a pre-programmed interval training routine – this will work. If you don’t work on a machine, or if your machine doesn’t have one, here is a suggestion for a beginning interval training routine:
Warm up – 4 minutes
Zone 2 – 1 minute
Zone 1 – 5 minutes
Zone 2 – 1 minute
Zone 1 – 5 minutes
Zone 2 – 1 minute
Zone 1 – 5 minutes
Zone 2 – 1 minute
Zone 1 – 5 minutes
Cool down – 2 minutes
You will notice that the heart rate is raised into zone 2 for one minute intervals before returning to the recovery zone (zone 1). As your fitness level improves you can increase the length of time spent in zone 2 and reduce the time spent in your recovery zone. If you walk for cardio you can raise your heart rate by walking faster, walking up a hill or stairs or by jogging. If you are working on a machine, increase the resistance or the incline until the desired heart rate is achieved. It is very important to allow your heart rate to drop back into zone 1 during the recovery intervals. As your conditioning improves your heart rate will recover more quickly. You can eventually work up to include brief intervals in zone 3 (one minute or less), but as indicated earlier, you should be sure you are very well conditioned before you try this.
Interval training has a number of benefits. They include:
- Improved cardiac recovery and efficiency.
- Increased caloric burn
- Prevention of plateau effect
- Lower resting heart rate
- Elevated anaerobic threshold.
As your level of fitness allows consider adding interval training to your program. If you want a little help figuring out your heart rate zones here’s a link to a calculator.
Thanks for reading my blog. Please feel free to call or write if you have any questions. Click the link below for my contact information. Have a great week!
8/30/09
Throw Your Weight Around with Body Weight Exercises
Resistance training is essential to any complete fitness program, but for lot of people it invokes visions of large bulky machines, heavy weights, or some combination of both. In reality, it is both possible and advisable to incorporate body weight exercises into your resistance training program. Body weight exercises are generally simple to execute, extremely effective, and most can be progressed or regressed to meet your fitness needs. Best of all, most do not require any equipment, or much space. These exercises can help you maintain your active lifestyle when you are on the road for business or for pleasure, or just provide a nice change for your resistance training routine. They can be done in the back yard, the playground, the park or indoors. Here are a few especially effective exercises by muscle group:
Chest, shoulders and triceps:
Nothing beats a good old fashioned pushup for chest, shoulder and triceps development. The pushup is also a great core stabilization exercise. Pushups can be made easier (regressed) in a number of ways. They can be done on your knees, or by raising the head relative to the feet (as pictured). The higher your head is, the easier the pushup. You can put your hands on a bench, a table, a counter, or even up against the wall. Pushups can be made more difficult (progressed) by raising the feet relative to the head (by placing them on a stool, chair or stability ball). This also increases the shoulder involvement of the movement.
Back and biceps:
The ultimate back and biceps exercise is the chin up. In fact, one of the more popular machine exercises, the Lat Pulldown, is a regression of the chin up. The biggest problem most people have with chin ups is that they are extremely difficult to perform correctly. To perform a chin up you should start from a dead hang – do not jump up and use momentum to get your chin over the bar, and do not bounce at the bottom of the movement. You can get a chin up bar at most sporting goods stores, or you can use the monkey bars at the playground, or any branch you can reach in a tree. You can regress a chin up by performing it at an angle with your feet on the ground. Use the cross bar on a playscape (as pictured), a table, bench, doorway or even a fence post to perform this move. As with pushups, the higher your head is relative to your feet, the easier the movement is to perform. Chin ups can be performed with an overhand or underhand grip and varied hand spacing. If chin ups become too easy they can be performed with a backpack full of weights, or even one-handed.
Legs and Gluteals:
For leg and gluteal development I highly recommend squats. You can perform a squat on one leg or two. To maintain proper form, remember to keep your feet hip width apart and pointed straight ahead through the full range of motion. At the bottom of the movement (about chair height) your upper body should be parallel with your shins. Jump squats are also a very effective exercise that can help develop explosive strength in the quads. Be sure you maintain proper form throughout the movement and landing to avoid injury. Lunges are a variation of the squat (think of a lunge as a single leg squat with a kickstand) and are also a very effective exercise. For both squats and lunges focus on squeezing your gluteals at the top of the movement. Squats can be regressed by placing a stability ball between your back and the wall. This can also help you develop good form through the movement, and is highly recommended for beginning squatters.
Core:
Most people are familiar with crunches, which are a very good core exercise. Plank is also a terrific core exercise, and develops some of the smaller muscles in the core. To perform plank come up on your forearms and toes (as pictured), engage your core by drawing your navel toward your spine, and maintain the position for as long as you can. Try to keep your hips level, and be sure to breathe while performing the movement. Plank can be regressed by performing it on your hands and toes (pushup position) or knees and forearms. You can progress plank by moving slowly up and down. Other core exercises include leg raises, mountain climbers and reverse crunches.
Those are a few body weight exercises you can try. There are many, many more. So, next time you find yourself away from the weight room for whatever the reason, don’t give up on resistance training. Instead, throw your weight around a little bit. You’ll be glad you did.
I want to thank my boys for posing for the pictures I used to illustrate these moves, and for providing inspiration for this blog by constantly finding new and creative ways to use the yard, the trees and the playscape to get exercise and have fun.
Thanks for reading my blog. If you have any questions, or need any exercise ideas please click the link below. I’ll be glad to help you out.
8/23/09
“Baby Steps” to a Healthier Lifestyle
I got in shape relatively late in life, and after a number of very sedentary years. I didn’t really plan to do it – I just kind of fell into it while trying to keep up with my son as he rode around the block on his bike. As a consequence, my first “workout” – a run around the block - lasted about ten minutes. It wasn’t much, but it was a start, and I ultimately ended up making some pretty significant and lasting lifestyle changes. Looking back, I think I was lucky that it happened the way it did. If I had planned my first workout I am pretty sure my “type A” personality would have made me bite off more than I could chew, and I might not have ever done my second workout. If you are planning to make a lifestyle change, you might want to consider a measured approach – my wife calls it taking “baby steps.”
Consider these suggestions . . .
1. Set Goals. Whatever your long term goal is, plan very small and reachable milestones to help you get there. Track them and adjust along the way as needed. Try to make sure your goals are achievable and sustainable – for example, if you are trying to lose weight, half a pound to two pounds per week is achievable and sustainable. Ten pounds per week is not – at least for the average person under average conditions. Trying to do too much too fast can lead to disappointment, burn out and injury.
2. Think lifestyle - not just diet or exercise. Diets and exercise programs come and go, but a lifestyle change can last a lifetime. Make sure your lifestyle change is meaningful, but also make sure it is at a pace you can sustain.
3. Exercise – start slowly, but start. Walking is great exercise and an excellent start on a cardio program for beginners. When it comes to resistance training, focus on core strength and stability before you start trying to sling around a lot of weight. If you have a stability ball and a couple of light (3 to 5 pound) dumbbells you have all you need for the first month or so of your resistance training program. If you don’t know how to set up a comprehensive exercise program ask a certified personal trainer. Most of the trainers I know (and most gym trainers) will do a free consultation and help get you started. I certainly will.
4. Find the time. Exercise when you can - don’t wait until you have time to do a “full” workout. It would be great if everyone had a solid thirty to sixty minute block every day that could be dedicated to exercise, but most people just don’t. Try to find creative ways to exercise on days when you can’t set aside a long period of time for a workout. Here are a few ideas:
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator
- Park way out in the store parking lot and “fast walk” into the store
- Don’t use the “self-propelled” function on your lawn mower
- Throw in a few sets of squats, crunches, pushups or jumping jacks while you are watching TV
Those are just a few ideas – I’m sure you can think of many more.
5. Think outside the fast food box. Baby steps work for nutrition as well. If you eat fast food several times a week (by choice or by circumstance) giving it up entirely might not be a workable approach for you. Instead, try making some modifications to your order. For example, try getting the grilled chicken sandwich instead of the double meat burger, and the side salad instead of the fries. You will be amazed at the difference it will make. Here are the numbers on that change (courtesy of Wendy’s nutritional information site – the link is below):
Double Meat Burger (w/everything and cheese): 700 calories, 40 grams of fat (17 grams saturated)
Medium Fries: 420 calories, 20 grams of fat (4 grams saturated)
Small Coke: 160 calories
Total: 1280 calories, 60 grams of fat (21 grams saturated)
Ultimate Chicken Grill Sandwich: 320 calories, 7 grams of fat (1.5 grams saturated)
Side Salad: 35 calories
Fat Free French dressing: 70 calories
Minute Maid Light Lemonade: 10 Calories
Total: 435 calories, 7 grams of fat (1.5 grams saturated)
By making this change you reduce your intake by 845 calories and 53 grams of fat! You reduce your saturated fat intake by 19.5 grams! If you remember the weight loss math we did last week, that’s a pound of calories saved in less than five meals.
Nutritional information is available for almost all fast food restaurants, so if you know you are going to have to eat fast food it really pays to do a little research up front. I did this when I was making my lifestyle changes and it really worked. As your lifestyle changes progress, you will probably find yourself naturally moving toward healthier meal choices and away from fast food altogether.
These are just a few ideas to help you get started on the road to a healthier lifestyle.
The important thing to remember is that doing anything is better than doing nothing.
Why not try to take a few “baby steps” toward a better lifestyle this week? You’ll be glad you did.
Thanks for reading my blog. If you have any questions or need any help getting started please feel free to click on the link below. I’ll be glad to help you out.
Wendy’s Nutritional Information link
http://www.wendys.com/food/pdf/us/nutrition.pdf
8/16/09
Weight Loss – Cutting Through the Hype
It seems like every time I turn on the radio or television I hear about a new sure-fire way to lose weight. Sometimes it’s a drug, sometimes it’s a diet, sometimes it’s a machine or exercise routine. All of them seem to have one thing in common – they promise quick and easy weight loss. Most of them feature interviews with people who relate their incredible results using the product.
If you look closely at the TV ads during these testimonials you will see (in very small print) a statement to the effect that the results described are not typical, and that proper nutrition and exercise are required for effective weight loss.
The unfortunate fact is that there is no magic pill, machine or exercise routine that is going to make it easy to lose weight. That having been said, the principle involved in weight loss is relatively simple. In order to effectively lose weight, you must use more calories than you consume.
Here is the math: 1 pound equals approximately 3500 calories. Under normal conditions, if you use 3500 more calories than you consume, you will lose a pound. You can do this by modifying your diet, exercising more, or, ideally, a combination of both. Not too complicated, right?
Here is the tricky part. Your body is designed, and constantly working to prepare you for the next famine. It will respond to hunger and fatigue by storing energy. Unfortunately, your body stores energy as fat. To further complicate the situation, if your body believes you are not getting enough food or rest, it will shut down your metabolism to conserve energy. This can make losing weight exceedingly difficult unless you compensate for these internal systems, by feeding and resting your body appropriately.
Here are some tips:
Eat more but less: Rather than try to reduce calories by skipping meals (which results in the effects described above) try eating more often, but less at each meal. Try to eat four to six times per day.
Eat a well balanced diet: In general, your diet should consist of 15%-30% protein, 50%-70% carbohydrates and 10%-30% fat. These ranges are pretty broad – if you see a diet plan that falls outside of them, you probably want to avoid it.
Eat the right kind of fat: Try to eat monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats (e.g. nuts, vegetable, canola and olive oils). Try to minimize saturated fats (e.g. butter, cheese, fatty meats) in your diet. Avoid trans-fats altogether (fast foods and snack foods usually contain trans-fats).
Eat a lot of fiber: Fiber helps you feel full longer, and is essential to proper digestion. Fruits and vegetables are an excellent source of fiber. They taste good too.
Drink a lot of water: Water is critical to good health and helps keep your metabolic engine running. Make sure you stay well hydrated – especially during exercise.
Keep a food log: A recent study showed you are six times more likely to lose weight if you keep a food log. That’s a pretty compelling reason to keep one.
Phone a friend: Try to involve your friends and family in your plan to lose weight. Find a weight loss partner – it will help get you to exercise on days when you really don’t feel like it, and will help you stick to your nutritional plan. Ask the family to plan healthy meals on days when you visit. Who knows - you might motivate them to start eating healthier too.
Stick with it: Learn to expect and accept minor setbacks – don’t let them knock you off your plan. It might help to build in “cheat days” when you allow yourself a special treat. It’s better to plan a couple of chocolate chip cookies a week into your routine than to deprive yourself for a month and binge on a whole package.
Exercise: Plan a comprehensive exercise routine and stick with it. You don’t need to spend a lot of money, buy a lot of equipment or spend hours a day grinding through it. Try to move your body and get your heart rate up for thirty to sixty minutes every day. Do something fun and make it a part of your new lifestyle. A pound of muscle will burn 35-45 more calories per day than a pound of fat, so make sure you incorporate some resistance training into your program. If you have any questions or need any help designing your program click here. I will help you get started at no charge or obligation.
Get some help: There is a wealth of nutritional information available. There are weight loss groups, dieticians and web-based resources you can use to help you determine your individual nutritional requirements. Pick the method that works best for you, and stick with it. My personal favorite is www.mypyramid.gov. It is a USDA-sponsored web site that contains a huge amount of information as well as a number of interactive tools you can use to design a nutritional program that is right for you. Best of all, it’s completely free.
Those are a few tips to get you started. As Confucius said, “A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.” Why not take your first step today?
Thanks for reading my blog. If you have any questions please feel free to click on the link below and contact me – I’ll be glad to help you out.
8/9/09
Body Mass Index – Do you know the Score?
The other day at a Health Fair, a young man approached my table and asked me to figure out his Body Mass Index score. He had been told previously that his Body Mass Index (BMI for short) was too high, and that he needed to lose some weight. This came as a surprise to him since he thought he was in great shape (he clearly was), and since he was lifting weights and actually wanted to gain a few more pounds of muscle.
He was 6’4” tall and weighed 225 pounds, so his BMI score was 27.4 – technically in the “mildly obese” range. However, I was able to reassure him that his weight was fine (even if he did gain a few more pounds) and not to be concerned about his BMI score. Why was I able to do that with confidence?
BMI is a proportional measure of your height and weight. To calculate it, take your weight in kilograms and divide it by your height in meters squared (Weight (kg) / Height (m) squared). For those of you who prefer to avoid the metric system, take your weight in pounds, divide it by your height in inches squared and multiply the result by 703 ((Weight (lbs) / height (inches) squared) *703).
Compare your score to the scale below to determine whether your weight is appropriate for your height.
Normal: 18.5 – 24.9
Mildly Obese: 25 – 29.9
Moderately Obese: 30 – 35
Severely Obese: >35
Generally speaking, a BMI score greater than 25 can put you at risk for obesity-related health problems.
BMI is not a foolproof measurement. It is not accurate if you are heavily muscled, have extremely low body fat, or both. This was the case with the young man I described above, and is the case for many athletes in strength-oriented sports (football, power-lifting, body building, etc.). However, for most of the population it can be useful in setting a fitness baseline, and in determining an appropriate target weight.
Here’s a link to a calculator you can use to determine your Body Mass Index. Just plug in your height in inches and your weight in pounds and hit the "enter" key – your BMI will calculate automatically.
Please feel free to call or e-mail with any questions. Just click on the link below for contact information. Thanks for reading my fitness blog.
8/2/09
To Maximize Stability, Think. . . . Unstable!
My wife tried this move in the picture at the right, just to see if she could do it (she could). It got me thinking about the importance of core strength and balance. By the way, that is a pretty advanced move and shouldn’t be tried until your balance is excellent.
Many people think of resistance training as the performance of stable exercises and isolation of muscle groups. A good example of this is the bench press or machine chest press. The bench stabilizes the body so the prime movers (chest and triceps) can be isolated and exercised.
This is a very effective way to isolate and train muscle groups. However, to insure maximum core strength and stability your routine should include exercises performed in an unstable environment. This forces the core to stabilize the body, strengthening it and improving balance. It also engages many muscle groups (muscle group recruitment) during the exercise, and trains the body to effectively use all of these muscles together.
Here are some examples of traditional stable exercises for major muscle groups, along with their unstable counterparts:
Chest
Stable – Bench Press or machine Chest Press
Unstable – Pushup or Ball Chest Press
Shoulders
Stable – Seated Military Press or Machine Overhead Press
Unstable – Single Leg Overhead Press or Single Leg Front Lateral Raise
Some people find it hard to believe, but improving core strength and balance will allow you to do more work in any environment – stable or unstable. It also helps you hold proper form during exercises and helps prevent injury.
To create a strong foundation for movement, ideally, resistance training should be performed in an unstable environment and with relatively low weight before progressing to heavier weights and more stable exercises.
Remember, just as it is easier to build a strong house on a solid foundation, it is easier to build a strong body on a stable core.
Please feel free to call or e-mail (click the link below) if you have any questions or would like more examples of unstable exercises. I’ll be glad to help you out.
Thanks for visiting the R.E.A.L. Fitness Blog
8/30/09
Throw Your Weight Around with Body Weight Exercises
Resistance training is essential to any complete fitness program, but for lot of people it invokes visions of large bulky machines, heavy weights, or some combination of both. In reality, it is both possible and advisable to incorporate body weight exercises into your resistance training program. Body weight exercises are generally simple to execute, extremely effective, and most can be progressed or regressed to meet your fitness needs. Best of all, most do not require any equipment, or much space. These exercises can help you maintain your active lifestyle when you are on the road for business or for pleasure, or just provide a nice change for your resistance training routine. They can be done in the back yard, the playground, the park or indoors. Here are a few especially effective exercises by muscle group:
Chest, shoulders and triceps:
Nothing beats a good old fashioned pushup for chest, shoulder and triceps development. The pushup is also a great core stabilization exercise. Pushups can be made easier (regressed) in a number of ways. They can be done on your knees, or by raising the head relative to the feet (as pictured). The higher your head is, the easier the pushup. You can put your hands on a bench, a table, a counter, or even up against the wall. Pushups can be made more difficult (progressed) by raising the feet relative to the head (by placing them on a stool, chair or stability ball). This also increases the shoulder involvement of the movement.
Back and biceps:
The ultimate back and biceps exercise is the chin up. In fact, one of the more popular machine exercises, the Lat Pulldown, is a regression of the chin up. The biggest problem most people have with chin ups is that they are extremely difficult to perform correctly. To perform a chin up you should start from a dead hang – do not jump up and use momentum to get your chin over the bar, and do not bounce at the bottom of the movement. You can get a chin up bar at most sporting goods stores, or you can use the monkey bars at the playground, or any branch you can reach in a tree. You can regress a chin up by performing it at an angle with your feet on the ground. Use the cross bar on a playscape (as pictured), a table, bench, doorway or even a fence post to perform this move. As with pushups, the higher your head is relative to your feet, the easier the movement is to perform. Chin ups can be performed with an overhand or underhand grip and varied hand spacing. If chin ups become too easy they can be performed with a backpack full of weights, or even one-handed.
Legs and Gluteals:
For leg and gluteal development I highly recommend squats. You can perform a squat on one leg or two. To maintain proper form, remember to keep your feet hip width apart and pointed straight ahead through the full range of motion. At the bottom of the movement (about chair height) your upper body should be parallel with your shins. Jump squats are also a very effective exercise that can help develop explosive strength in the quads. Be sure you maintain proper form throughout the movement and landing to avoid injury. Lunges are a variation of the squat (think of a lunge as a single leg squat with a kickstand) and are also a very effective exercise. For both squats and lunges focus on squeezing your gluteals at the top of the movement. Squats can be regressed by placing a stability ball between your back and the wall. This can also help you develop good form through the movement, and is highly recommended for beginning squatters.
Core:
Most people are familiar with crunches, which are a very good core exercise. Plank is also a terrific core exercise, and develops some of the smaller muscles in the core. To perform plank come up on your forearms and toes (as pictured), engage your core by drawing your navel toward your spine, and maintain the position for as long as you can. Try to keep your hips level, and be sure to breathe while performing the movement. Plank can be regressed by performing it on your hands and toes (pushup position) or knees and forearms. You can progress plank by moving slowly up and down. Other core exercises include leg raises, mountain climbers and reverse crunches.
Those are a few body weight exercises you can try. There are many, many more. So, next time you find yourself away from the weight room for whatever the reason, don’t give up on resistance training. Instead, throw your weight around a little bit. You’ll be glad you did.
I want to thank my boys for posing for the pictures I used to illustrate these moves, and for providing inspiration for this blog by constantly finding new and creative ways to use the yard, the trees and the playscape to get exercise and have fun.
Thanks for reading my blog. If you have any questions, or need any exercise ideas please click the link below. I’ll be glad to help you out.
8/23/09
“Baby Steps” to a Healthier Lifestyle
I got in shape relatively late in life, and after a number of very sedentary years. I didn’t really plan to do it – I just kind of fell into it while trying to keep up with my son as he rode around the block on his bike. As a consequence, my first “workout” – a run around the block - lasted about ten minutes. It wasn’t much, but it was a start, and I ultimately ended up making some pretty significant and lasting lifestyle changes. Looking back, I think I was lucky that it happened the way it did. If I had planned my first workout I am pretty sure my “type A” personality would have made me bite off more than I could chew, and I might not have ever done my second workout. If you are planning to make a lifestyle change, you might want to consider a measured approach – my wife calls it taking “baby steps.”
Consider these suggestions . . .
1. Set Goals. Whatever your long term goal is, plan very small and reachable milestones to help you get there. Track them and adjust along the way as needed. Try to make sure your goals are achievable and sustainable – for example, if you are trying to lose weight, half a pound to two pounds per week is achievable and sustainable. Ten pounds per week is not – at least for the average person under average conditions. Trying to do too much too fast can lead to disappointment, burn out and injury.
2. Think lifestyle - not just diet or exercise. Diets and exercise programs come and go, but a lifestyle change can last a lifetime. Make sure your lifestyle change is meaningful, but also make sure it is at a pace you can sustain.
3. Exercise – start slowly, but start. Walking is great exercise and an excellent start on a cardio program for beginners. When it comes to resistance training, focus on core strength and stability before you start trying to sling around a lot of weight. If you have a stability ball and a couple of light (3 to 5 pound) dumbbells you have all you need for the first month or so of your resistance training program. If you don’t know how to set up a comprehensive exercise program ask a certified personal trainer. Most of the trainers I know (and most gym trainers) will do a free consultation and help get you started. I certainly will.
4. Find the time. Exercise when you can - don’t wait until you have time to do a “full” workout. It would be great if everyone had a solid thirty to sixty minute block every day that could be dedicated to exercise, but most people just don’t. Try to find creative ways to exercise on days when you can’t set aside a long period of time for a workout. Here are a few ideas:
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator
- Park way out in the store parking lot and “fast walk” into the store
- Don’t use the “self-propelled” function on your lawn mower
- Throw in a few sets of squats, crunches, pushups or jumping jacks while you are watching TV
Those are just a few ideas – I’m sure you can think of many more.
5. Think outside the fast food box. Baby steps work for nutrition as well. If you eat fast food several times a week (by choice or by circumstance) giving it up entirely might not be a workable approach for you. Instead, try making some modifications to your order. For example, try getting the grilled chicken sandwich instead of the double meat burger, and the side salad instead of the fries. You will be amazed at the difference it will make. Here are the numbers on that change (courtesy of Wendy’s nutritional information site – the link is below):
Double Meat Burger (w/everything and cheese): 700 calories, 40 grams of fat (17 grams saturated)
Medium Fries: 420 calories, 20 grams of fat (4 grams saturated)
Small Coke: 160 calories
Total: 1280 calories, 60 grams of fat (21 grams saturated)
Ultimate Chicken Grill Sandwich: 320 calories, 7 grams of fat (1.5 grams saturated)
Side Salad: 35 calories
Fat Free French dressing: 70 calories
Minute Maid Light Lemonade: 10 Calories
Total: 435 calories, 7 grams of fat (1.5 grams saturated)
By making this change you reduce your intake by 845 calories and 53 grams of fat! You reduce your saturated fat intake by 19.5 grams! If you remember the weight loss math we did last week, that’s a pound of calories saved in less than five meals.
Nutritional information is available for almost all fast food restaurants, so if you know you are going to have to eat fast food it really pays to do a little research up front. I did this when I was making my lifestyle changes and it really worked. As your lifestyle changes progress, you will probably find yourself naturally moving toward healthier meal choices and away from fast food altogether.
These are just a few ideas to help you get started on the road to a healthier lifestyle.
The important thing to remember is that doing anything is better than doing nothing.
Why not try to take a few “baby steps” toward a better lifestyle this week? You’ll be glad you did.
Thanks for reading my blog. If you have any questions or need any help getting started please feel free to click on the link below. I’ll be glad to help you out.
Wendy’s Nutritional Information link
http://www.wendys.com/food/pdf/us/nutrition.pdf
8/16/09
Weight Loss – Cutting Through the Hype
It seems like every time I turn on the radio or television I hear about a new sure-fire way to lose weight. Sometimes it’s a drug, sometimes it’s a diet, sometimes it’s a machine or exercise routine. All of them seem to have one thing in common – they promise quick and easy weight loss. Most of them feature interviews with people who relate their incredible results using the product.
If you look closely at the TV ads during these testimonials you will see (in very small print) a statement to the effect that the results described are not typical, and that proper nutrition and exercise are required for effective weight loss.
The unfortunate fact is that there is no magic pill, machine or exercise routine that is going to make it easy to lose weight. That having been said, the principle involved in weight loss is relatively simple. In order to effectively lose weight, you must use more calories than you consume.
Here is the math: 1 pound equals approximately 3500 calories. Under normal conditions, if you use 3500 more calories than you consume, you will lose a pound. You can do this by modifying your diet, exercising more, or, ideally, a combination of both. Not too complicated, right?
Here is the tricky part. Your body is designed, and constantly working to prepare you for the next famine. It will respond to hunger and fatigue by storing energy. Unfortunately, your body stores energy as fat. To further complicate the situation, if your body believes you are not getting enough food or rest, it will shut down your metabolism to conserve energy. This can make losing weight exceedingly difficult unless you compensate for these internal systems, by feeding and resting your body appropriately.
Here are some tips:
Eat more but less: Rather than try to reduce calories by skipping meals (which results in the effects described above) try eating more often, but less at each meal. Try to eat four to six times per day.
Eat a well balanced diet: In general, your diet should consist of 15%-30% protein, 50%-70% carbohydrates and 10%-30% fat. These ranges are pretty broad – if you see a diet plan that falls outside of them, you probably want to avoid it.
Eat the right kind of fat: Try to eat monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats (e.g. nuts, vegetable, canola and olive oils). Try to minimize saturated fats (e.g. butter, cheese, fatty meats) in your diet. Avoid trans-fats altogether (fast foods and snack foods usually contain trans-fats).
Eat a lot of fiber: Fiber helps you feel full longer, and is essential to proper digestion. Fruits and vegetables are an excellent source of fiber. They taste good too.
Drink a lot of water: Water is critical to good health and helps keep your metabolic engine running. Make sure you stay well hydrated – especially during exercise.
Keep a food log: A recent study showed you are six times more likely to lose weight if you keep a food log. That’s a pretty compelling reason to keep one.
Phone a friend: Try to involve your friends and family in your plan to lose weight. Find a weight loss partner – it will help get you to exercise on days when you really don’t feel like it, and will help you stick to your nutritional plan. Ask the family to plan healthy meals on days when you visit. Who knows - you might motivate them to start eating healthier too.
Stick with it: Learn to expect and accept minor setbacks – don’t let them knock you off your plan. It might help to build in “cheat days” when you allow yourself a special treat. It’s better to plan a couple of chocolate chip cookies a week into your routine than to deprive yourself for a month and binge on a whole package.
Exercise: Plan a comprehensive exercise routine and stick with it. You don’t need to spend a lot of money, buy a lot of equipment or spend hours a day grinding through it. Try to move your body and get your heart rate up for thirty to sixty minutes every day. Do something fun and make it a part of your new lifestyle. A pound of muscle will burn 35-45 more calories per day than a pound of fat, so make sure you incorporate some resistance training into your program. If you have any questions or need any help designing your program click here. I will help you get started at no charge or obligation.
Get some help: There is a wealth of nutritional information available. There are weight loss groups, dieticians and web-based resources you can use to help you determine your individual nutritional requirements. Pick the method that works best for you, and stick with it. My personal favorite is www.mypyramid.gov. It is a USDA-sponsored web site that contains a huge amount of information as well as a number of interactive tools you can use to design a nutritional program that is right for you. Best of all, it’s completely free.
Those are a few tips to get you started. As Confucius said, “A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.” Why not take your first step today?
Thanks for reading my blog. If you have any questions please feel free to click on the link below and contact me – I’ll be glad to help you out.
8/9/09
Body Mass Index – Do you know the Score?
The other day at a Health Fair, a young man approached my table and asked me to figure out his Body Mass Index score. He had been told previously that his Body Mass Index (BMI for short) was too high, and that he needed to lose some weight. This came as a surprise to him since he thought he was in great shape (he clearly was), and since he was lifting weights and actually wanted to gain a few more pounds of muscle.
He was 6’4” tall and weighed 225 pounds, so his BMI score was 27.4 – technically in the “mildly obese” range. However, I was able to reassure him that his weight was fine (even if he did gain a few more pounds) and not to be concerned about his BMI score. Why was I able to do that with confidence?
BMI is a proportional measure of your height and weight. To calculate it, take your weight in kilograms and divide it by your height in meters squared (Weight (kg) / Height (m) squared). For those of you who prefer to avoid the metric system, take your weight in pounds, divide it by your height in inches squared and multiply the result by 703 ((Weight (lbs) / height (inches) squared) *703).
Compare your score to the scale below to determine whether your weight is appropriate for your height.
Normal: 18.5 – 24.9
Mildly Obese: 25 – 29.9
Moderately Obese: 30 – 35
Severely Obese: >35
Generally speaking, a BMI score greater than 25 can put you at risk for obesity-related health problems.
BMI is not a foolproof measurement. It is not accurate if you are heavily muscled, have extremely low body fat, or both. This was the case with the young man I described above, and is the case for many athletes in strength-oriented sports (football, power-lifting, body building, etc.). However, for most of the population it can be useful in setting a fitness baseline, and in determining an appropriate target weight.
Here’s a link to a calculator you can use to determine your Body Mass Index. Just plug in your height in inches and your weight in pounds and hit the "enter" key – your BMI will calculate automatically.
Please feel free to call or e-mail with any questions. Just click on the link below for contact information. Thanks for reading my fitness blog.
8/2/09
To Maximize Stability, Think. . . . Unstable!
My wife tried this move in the picture at the right, just to see if she could do it (she could). It got me thinking about the importance of core strength and balance. By the way, that is a pretty advanced move and shouldn’t be tried until your balance is excellent.
Many people think of resistance training as the performance of stable exercises and isolation of muscle groups. A good example of this is the bench press or machine chest press. The bench stabilizes the body so the prime movers (chest and triceps) can be isolated and exercised.
This is a very effective way to isolate and train muscle groups. However, to insure maximum core strength and stability your routine should include exercises performed in an unstable environment. This forces the core to stabilize the body, strengthening it and improving balance. It also engages many muscle groups (muscle group recruitment) during the exercise, and trains the body to effectively use all of these muscles together.
Here are some examples of traditional stable exercises for major muscle groups, along with their unstable counterparts:
Chest
Stable – Bench Press or machine Chest Press
Unstable – Pushup or Ball Chest Press
Shoulders
Stable – Seated Military Press or Machine Overhead Press
Unstable – Single Leg Overhead Press or Single Leg Front Lateral Raise
Some people find it hard to believe, but improving core strength and balance will allow you to do more work in any environment – stable or unstable. It also helps you hold proper form during exercises and helps prevent injury.
To create a strong foundation for movement, ideally, resistance training should be performed in an unstable environment and with relatively low weight before progressing to heavier weights and more stable exercises.
Remember, just as it is easier to build a strong house on a solid foundation, it is easier to build a strong body on a stable core.
Please feel free to call or e-mail (click the link below) if you have any questions or would like more examples of unstable exercises. I’ll be glad to help you out.
Thanks for visiting the R.E.A.L. Fitness Blog
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Hitting a plateau can make you feel like you are running in place
Dip top position - note use of dumbbells
Dip bottom position
Regressed dip top position
Regressed dip bottom position
Standard dip bottom position
Dip variation
Floor plank
Plank on hands and toes
Plank on knees and forearms
Incline plank
Stability ball plank
Side plank
Ball Plank
Floor Plank
Starting position
Forward extension
Side extension
Rear extension
Knees move inward and feet turn out during a prisoner squat
Foam rolling the lateral gastrocnemius
Standing gastrocnemius stretch
Standing adductor stretch
Standard Pushup Up Position
Standard Pushup Down Position
Pushup Regression Up Position
Pushup Regression Down Position
Pushup Progression Up Position
Standard Chin Up Down Position
Standard Chin Up Up Position
Chin Up Regression Down Position
Chin Up Regression Up Position
Prisoner Squat Up Position
Prisoner Squat Down Position
Plank
A difficult balance move performed on a stability ball
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Harry Downing Fitness
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