What Works?
What is the best way to start a new exercise routine?
You need to know how to start exercising again. This is different for everyone. To start with; you need to asses your particular imbalances, know your “tipping point” when it comes to cardiovascular fitness, know how to avoid over training, implement a flexibility routine which will cater to your particular muscle imbalances, and you NEED to work your core. It’s easier than it may seem once you begin to feel it working.
If you’re planning to begin exercising then do not underestimate how likely you may be of injuring yourself during your first six weeks of actually working out.
Research has proved that people who are sedentary are at a much higher risk of injury when entering into an exercise program. According to the National Academy of Sports Medicine, during the first six weeks of a study that physically trained sedentary adults there was a 50 to 90 percent injury rate. This was a program done in 1994 that was meant to reduce risk of injury.
If you use a desk, computer, or a car in your job you may be prone to muscular imbalances you don’t even know about. These muscle imbalances are a major contributor to strains, sprains, and tissue trauma within the body, the type of trauma that can be exacerbated by exercise.
So how do you stay safe enough to see results? Step one: GET TO THE CORE.
Training the core first is nearly always the best of approaches when starting an exercise program. This is due to the fact that training your core (i.e. the area from the bottom of your ribs to your tailbone) deals with training the structure of your body. It deals with posture, flexibility, optimal movement patterns. But you have to do the exercises right.
Your core is also one of the first places to get injured in today’s world. Training that core will help to guard you against being one of the 80% of Americans who will endure low back pain. Developing your core will help stave off your risk of injuring your trunk like 60% of the people who go on disability every year.
Better yet, when you train the core… you begin to feel better! Have you ever tried to stand up really straight? Don’t you feel more astute, erudite, sophisticated? As funny as it may seem, posture is important. Did you know that just sitting up straight in your chair can help raise your energy level?
Training the core is certainly not “cool.” It is, however, the opinion of this article that the core is the best place to start when it comes to helping you get back into shape so that you can enjoy all the benefits of being fit while accepting as little risk as possible in the process. And, you can even do it in a small amount of time.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
There Is No Failure Except In Not Trying -- From Motivating Max
THERE IS NO FAILURE EXCEPT IN NOT TRYING.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You cannot be beaten at anythinguntil you quit in your own mind.
There is no defeat except from within.You have no real insurmountable
barrierexcept your own inherent weakness of purpose.
Consider yourself on a very long journey.
Sustain your personal vision of success.
In the end, you can only fail if you do not try.
Success is a road paved with perseverance.
The odds are with you if you keep on trying.
Winning isn't everything, but wanting to is.
If you've got the never to try to make it, you will.
© Copyright 2008 www.yourdailymotivation.com
Reproduce freely but maintain Copyright notice.Was Today's Daily Motivational Message Forwarded to you from a friend? Click here to have a fresh Daily Motivational Message delivered directly to YOUR inbox every day:
www.maxsteingart.com www.yourdailymotivation.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You cannot be beaten at anythinguntil you quit in your own mind.
There is no defeat except from within.You have no real insurmountable
barrierexcept your own inherent weakness of purpose.
Consider yourself on a very long journey.
Sustain your personal vision of success.
In the end, you can only fail if you do not try.
Success is a road paved with perseverance.
The odds are with you if you keep on trying.
Winning isn't everything, but wanting to is.
If you've got the never to try to make it, you will.
© Copyright 2008 www.yourdailymotivation.com
Reproduce freely but maintain Copyright notice.Was Today's Daily Motivational Message Forwarded to you from a friend? Click here to have a fresh Daily Motivational Message delivered directly to YOUR inbox every day:
www.maxsteingart.com www.yourdailymotivation.com
Monday, January 12, 2009
Fitness Fact vs. Fitness Fiction Part II
Ok. So Last Week is over. And, since you are only as good as your last battle, your chance for redemption is at hand. Here is the second half of the fitness fact vs. fitness fiction quiz. Good luck!
Fact or Fiction:
1) Doing crunches or working on an "ab machine" will get rid of belly fat.
2) You need to sweat to burn calories; the more you sweat the more calories you burn.
3) An aerobic workout will boost your metabolism for hours after you stop working out.
4) As long as you feel OK when you're working out, you're probably not overdoing it.
5) Machines are a safe way to target and sculpt all areas of your body.
….
Doing crunches or working on an "ab machine" will get rid of belly fat.
FICTION
Ab machines sell. Period. Take a look at all of the infomercials out there right now capitalizing on your new year’s resolution to lose weight. “Perfect abs for three easy installments of $19.99”… why wouldn’t you want that?
The truth is that the best machine to use for your abs is the front door to any fitness facility. A good stomach comes with regular cardiovascular exercise, proper diet habits, and a gradual increase in muscle mass from weight bearing activities. This trio will lead to a decreased amount of overall body fat… over time.
You already have abs, they are just hiding under body fat. And yes, genetics do play a role.
You need to sweat to burn calories; the more you sweat the more calories you burn.
FICTION
Look, you can sweat so hard that you are re-defining the catch phrase “making it rain in the club” and still not be getting a great workout. Have you ever heard of the “executive workout?” You know; go to the gym, jump in the hot-tub, hit the sauna, and do some stairs on your way up to the sports bar. Sure, at the end of that hour you spend at the club you have certainly dropped some sweat, particularly in the sauna. But you have not necessarily burned that many calories.
Sweating is your body’s way of cooling itself; if you are hot you will probably sweat. But sweating does NOT guarantee a great workout.
An aerobic workout will boost your metabolism for hours after you stop working out.
FACT
A good workout will burn calories while you are exercising. A great workout sends you back to where you came from still burning calories. Within the industry, this phenomenon is referred to as “Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption” or EPOC.
Typical aerobic workouts will not burn significant calories after the fact. However, power based workouts intermingled with high intensity cardiovascular exercise has been shown to significantly boost EPOC. Certain training philosophies are founded on this concept, but they are not for everyone.
As long as you feel OK when you're working out, you're probably not overdoing it.
FICTION
There are none so righteous as the newly converted. Sometimes, particularly at the outset of a new exercise program, it’s easy to get so excited about being back into the game that you overdo it. You feel great the entire time you’re exercising, perhaps only a slight degree of burning. Watch out, you’re more likely to feel the pain later rather than sooner.
The real pain does not usually set in until up to two days later. When you get out of bed in the morning and feel as if someone has surgically removed all of the muscles in your body, filled them with rock salt, and re-inserted them in your sleep.
This is referred to as Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness (DOMS). DOMS is misleading because it can lead you to believe that working out is always painful and it shouldn’t be. DOMS is a serious deterrent to beginning, and sticking to an exercise program.
The great news is that at the start of a program you don’t need to push hard to see results. The outset of a program is the time to build habits, not muscle mass.
Machines are a safe way to target and sculpt all areas of your body.
FICTION
Isn’t it true that you can sell a machine more than a technique? Who was it that originally began telling people that it was the “machine” that gave you the results? It was probably the same person selling the machine.
The main “machine” being used in any workout is your own body. How you use your “machine”, and how long you use it at a given time, will be the measure of your safety and your results, nothing else.
Don’t buy into the marketing; if the machine is not set correctly for you then you may still be at risk of injury. Furthermore, if you are not aware of your own bodies’ intrinsic compensation patterns then you may be doing more harm than good and setting yourself up for injury down the road.
Unless you have a coach or a trainer to give you a list of beneficial machines and can show you how to set them up for yourself, you may still be at risk of injury.
Fact or Fiction:
1) Doing crunches or working on an "ab machine" will get rid of belly fat.
2) You need to sweat to burn calories; the more you sweat the more calories you burn.
3) An aerobic workout will boost your metabolism for hours after you stop working out.
4) As long as you feel OK when you're working out, you're probably not overdoing it.
5) Machines are a safe way to target and sculpt all areas of your body.
….
Doing crunches or working on an "ab machine" will get rid of belly fat.
FICTION
Ab machines sell. Period. Take a look at all of the infomercials out there right now capitalizing on your new year’s resolution to lose weight. “Perfect abs for three easy installments of $19.99”… why wouldn’t you want that?
The truth is that the best machine to use for your abs is the front door to any fitness facility. A good stomach comes with regular cardiovascular exercise, proper diet habits, and a gradual increase in muscle mass from weight bearing activities. This trio will lead to a decreased amount of overall body fat… over time.
You already have abs, they are just hiding under body fat. And yes, genetics do play a role.
You need to sweat to burn calories; the more you sweat the more calories you burn.
FICTION
Look, you can sweat so hard that you are re-defining the catch phrase “making it rain in the club” and still not be getting a great workout. Have you ever heard of the “executive workout?” You know; go to the gym, jump in the hot-tub, hit the sauna, and do some stairs on your way up to the sports bar. Sure, at the end of that hour you spend at the club you have certainly dropped some sweat, particularly in the sauna. But you have not necessarily burned that many calories.
Sweating is your body’s way of cooling itself; if you are hot you will probably sweat. But sweating does NOT guarantee a great workout.
An aerobic workout will boost your metabolism for hours after you stop working out.
FACT
A good workout will burn calories while you are exercising. A great workout sends you back to where you came from still burning calories. Within the industry, this phenomenon is referred to as “Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption” or EPOC.
Typical aerobic workouts will not burn significant calories after the fact. However, power based workouts intermingled with high intensity cardiovascular exercise has been shown to significantly boost EPOC. Certain training philosophies are founded on this concept, but they are not for everyone.
As long as you feel OK when you're working out, you're probably not overdoing it.
FICTION
There are none so righteous as the newly converted. Sometimes, particularly at the outset of a new exercise program, it’s easy to get so excited about being back into the game that you overdo it. You feel great the entire time you’re exercising, perhaps only a slight degree of burning. Watch out, you’re more likely to feel the pain later rather than sooner.
The real pain does not usually set in until up to two days later. When you get out of bed in the morning and feel as if someone has surgically removed all of the muscles in your body, filled them with rock salt, and re-inserted them in your sleep.
This is referred to as Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness (DOMS). DOMS is misleading because it can lead you to believe that working out is always painful and it shouldn’t be. DOMS is a serious deterrent to beginning, and sticking to an exercise program.
The great news is that at the start of a program you don’t need to push hard to see results. The outset of a program is the time to build habits, not muscle mass.
Machines are a safe way to target and sculpt all areas of your body.
FICTION
Isn’t it true that you can sell a machine more than a technique? Who was it that originally began telling people that it was the “machine” that gave you the results? It was probably the same person selling the machine.
The main “machine” being used in any workout is your own body. How you use your “machine”, and how long you use it at a given time, will be the measure of your safety and your results, nothing else.
Don’t buy into the marketing; if the machine is not set correctly for you then you may still be at risk of injury. Furthermore, if you are not aware of your own bodies’ intrinsic compensation patterns then you may be doing more harm than good and setting yourself up for injury down the road.
Unless you have a coach or a trainer to give you a list of beneficial machines and can show you how to set them up for yourself, you may still be at risk of injury.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Separate Fitness Fact From Fitness Fiction (Part I)
There is so much information out there about health and wellness that it can be hard to distinguish fitness fact from fitness fiction.
Some myths are just half-truths, exercises or techniques that work well for some people but not for others. Other information is just plain bad information passed down from gym member to gym member over the years. This type of myth can certainly derail your results. The wrong information can even lead to injury.
To see how good you are at separating fitness fact from fitness fiction, answer the following true false questions, and read on to find your results.
1) Running on a treadmill instead of pavement will reduce stress on your knees.
2) You need to lift weight to keep weight off your body.
3) Swimming or water aerobics is a great weight loss activity.
4) Exercising at low intensity in the “fat burn” zone is the way to lose body fat.
5) You can lose weight simply by cutting back on calories.
…………………..
Running on a treadmill instead of pavement will reduce stress on your knees.
FALSE
Anyway that you look at it, running is a full contact sport.
Many treadmills are built with a specific design to absorb shock. In this respect the companies that build and sell the treadmills are able to claim that the treadmills are safer than running on pavement. However, there are other ways to give yourself a cardio workout which resembles running, without actually stepping on a treadmill.
Reduce stress on your knees by varying your workouts. If cardio machines are your passion then try using an elliptical or stairmaster occasionally. Or, better yet, use circuit weight training to simulate a cardiovascular workout while toning and shaping your arms and upper body as well.
You need to lift weight to keep weight off your body.
FACT
Let’s talk about what typically happens. You start an exercise program… which consists of the long and varied routine of: treadmill… treadmill… elliptical… treadmill. WHOAH… you’re setting yourself up for failure; first of all booooring.
Consider what cardio does to your body. Cardio reduces muscle mass in the body. Did you know that muscle weighs three times as much as fat? Your initial weight loss from cardio may be more muscle than fat.
Muscle mass burns calories, the more muscle you have the more calories you burn. The more caloris you burn the more weight you lose.
This is where women get cheated. Because they have less muscle mass; women are more likely to keep on weight. Even with dainty eating habits, women can find it harder to keep the weight off than their self-indulgent gorging male counterparts.
Furthermore, as you do more cardio your pulmonary system and your cardiovascular system progress. Inevitably your body will adjust to the demands your imposing on it and your program (or lack thereof) will no longer yield new results.
The combination of less muscle and more necessary cardio can leave you in a rough situation. Not only are you burning fewer calories every day, but it’s going to take you more time on that boooring treadmill to keep the weight off.
So there you are plodding away at the treadmill, losing weight and feeling happy. Not knowing the whole time that you are dropping the one thing your body needs to burn the calories, your muscle mass. And you will think you’ve done the right thing, right up until three months later when you find you’re stuck on that all too familiar treadmill, and you just can’t seem to keep off the weight.
If you’re serious; this time, about losing weight. Then adding weight training is not an option, it’s a necessity. Building muscle will maintain your metabolism, a requirement if you are to end up “the biggest loser.”
The good news is that there are ways to lift weights which will stimulate a response in your body which can surpass that of traditional cardio AND simultaneously sculpt a nicer figure.
Swimming or water aerobics is a great weight loss activity.
FICTION
Since Michael Phelps has hit mainstream media we all believe that swimming is the way to achieve the “swimmers body.” But we often underestimate just how much time it takes for swimming results to occur. Olympic swimmers swim for hours on end for weeks at a time. They seldom take more than a one day rest and what you may call a workout they don’t even call a “warm-up.”
That said; water based workouts are low impact, low intensity ways to produce total body exercise. Seldom do you find a safer way to exercise or a better way to “jump in” to exercise again. Swimming itself is great for toning muscles, increasing lung capacity, and ridding the body of stress or tension.
However, since your body is mostly water, there’s just not that much resistance down there. You will get more fat burning results on land using your own energy without the help of your body’s buoyancy. Furthermore, swimming often leaves you ravenous, and can cause you to eat more after you workout.
Exercising at low intensity in the “fat burn” zone is the way to lose bodyfat.
FICTION
The way to lose body fat is to burn more calories than you consume. The “fat burn zone” concept says that at low intensity intervals you will be burning more calories from fat than if you were operating at a higher intensity. This may be true, but that doesn’t necessarily ensure that you will be burning that many calories at all.
According to the National Association of Sports Medicine your body burns 100% calories from fat when it is completely at rest. That means if you really want a fat burn workout you should hang out at home on the sofa watching T.V. or better yet, just go to sleep. Sounds like the All-American workout. But… with more than 35% of the American population tipping the scales at obese or beyond obese that strategy may not “carry that much weight.”
Low intensity exercise should be used at the outset of an exercise program to bring your cardiovascular system up to speed. Individual results may vary, but after 6 weeks of consistently sustained periods of low intensity exercise your heart and lungs should be ready for a more intense workout. Which will be required if you are to continue losing body fat.
You can lose weight simply by cutting back on calories.
FACT
Don’t ignore the law of thermodynamics; which is to say that if you input (or eat) less calories than you expend you will operate at a deficit (lose fat). If you input more calories than you use during the day you will operate at a surplus (store fat).
It follows then that by simply reducing your caloric intake you will lose weight.
But combining exercise with diet will help you lose weight more quickly. More importantly, it will help you keep the pounds off long term.
“The majority of participants in the National Weight Control Registry (a survey of thousands of people who have lost a significant amount of weight and kept it off for years) report that a consistent exercise program is one of their key weight maintenance strategies.”
http://www.uchsc.edu/nutrition/WyattJortberg/nwcr.htm
It’s sort of like gaining wealth. You can increase your income to increase wealth, or simply reduce your spending. But the quickest way to wealth is to reduce spending, while increasing your ability to earn.
Sure you can secure your way to a comfortable retirement by living like you are a pauper all the time… but would you really want to? What kind of life would that be for you? The same applies to just eating less food or cutting back on calories. Denying yourself of personal liberties is not the only way to your goals. Also, don’t ignore the minimum amount of calories you must consume to live a balanced lifestyle. For more diet information go to: http://www.sparkpeople.com/.
……….
So… how did you do?
Are you upset, frustrated, re-affirmed, or bewildered? Look… what’s most important in any undertaking is a keen, pulsating desire to achieve. With enough will power you will reach your goals.
Have the courage to see through tough times and to view setbacks as only temporary.
The next quiz is next week… so brush up on your study skills by getting actively involved in your fitness education.
Some myths are just half-truths, exercises or techniques that work well for some people but not for others. Other information is just plain bad information passed down from gym member to gym member over the years. This type of myth can certainly derail your results. The wrong information can even lead to injury.
To see how good you are at separating fitness fact from fitness fiction, answer the following true false questions, and read on to find your results.
1) Running on a treadmill instead of pavement will reduce stress on your knees.
2) You need to lift weight to keep weight off your body.
3) Swimming or water aerobics is a great weight loss activity.
4) Exercising at low intensity in the “fat burn” zone is the way to lose body fat.
5) You can lose weight simply by cutting back on calories.
…………………..
Running on a treadmill instead of pavement will reduce stress on your knees.
FALSE
Anyway that you look at it, running is a full contact sport.
Many treadmills are built with a specific design to absorb shock. In this respect the companies that build and sell the treadmills are able to claim that the treadmills are safer than running on pavement. However, there are other ways to give yourself a cardio workout which resembles running, without actually stepping on a treadmill.
Reduce stress on your knees by varying your workouts. If cardio machines are your passion then try using an elliptical or stairmaster occasionally. Or, better yet, use circuit weight training to simulate a cardiovascular workout while toning and shaping your arms and upper body as well.
You need to lift weight to keep weight off your body.
FACT
Let’s talk about what typically happens. You start an exercise program… which consists of the long and varied routine of: treadmill… treadmill… elliptical… treadmill. WHOAH… you’re setting yourself up for failure; first of all booooring.
Consider what cardio does to your body. Cardio reduces muscle mass in the body. Did you know that muscle weighs three times as much as fat? Your initial weight loss from cardio may be more muscle than fat.
Muscle mass burns calories, the more muscle you have the more calories you burn. The more caloris you burn the more weight you lose.
This is where women get cheated. Because they have less muscle mass; women are more likely to keep on weight. Even with dainty eating habits, women can find it harder to keep the weight off than their self-indulgent gorging male counterparts.
Furthermore, as you do more cardio your pulmonary system and your cardiovascular system progress. Inevitably your body will adjust to the demands your imposing on it and your program (or lack thereof) will no longer yield new results.
The combination of less muscle and more necessary cardio can leave you in a rough situation. Not only are you burning fewer calories every day, but it’s going to take you more time on that boooring treadmill to keep the weight off.
So there you are plodding away at the treadmill, losing weight and feeling happy. Not knowing the whole time that you are dropping the one thing your body needs to burn the calories, your muscle mass. And you will think you’ve done the right thing, right up until three months later when you find you’re stuck on that all too familiar treadmill, and you just can’t seem to keep off the weight.
If you’re serious; this time, about losing weight. Then adding weight training is not an option, it’s a necessity. Building muscle will maintain your metabolism, a requirement if you are to end up “the biggest loser.”
The good news is that there are ways to lift weights which will stimulate a response in your body which can surpass that of traditional cardio AND simultaneously sculpt a nicer figure.
Swimming or water aerobics is a great weight loss activity.
FICTION
Since Michael Phelps has hit mainstream media we all believe that swimming is the way to achieve the “swimmers body.” But we often underestimate just how much time it takes for swimming results to occur. Olympic swimmers swim for hours on end for weeks at a time. They seldom take more than a one day rest and what you may call a workout they don’t even call a “warm-up.”
That said; water based workouts are low impact, low intensity ways to produce total body exercise. Seldom do you find a safer way to exercise or a better way to “jump in” to exercise again. Swimming itself is great for toning muscles, increasing lung capacity, and ridding the body of stress or tension.
However, since your body is mostly water, there’s just not that much resistance down there. You will get more fat burning results on land using your own energy without the help of your body’s buoyancy. Furthermore, swimming often leaves you ravenous, and can cause you to eat more after you workout.
Exercising at low intensity in the “fat burn” zone is the way to lose bodyfat.
FICTION
The way to lose body fat is to burn more calories than you consume. The “fat burn zone” concept says that at low intensity intervals you will be burning more calories from fat than if you were operating at a higher intensity. This may be true, but that doesn’t necessarily ensure that you will be burning that many calories at all.
According to the National Association of Sports Medicine your body burns 100% calories from fat when it is completely at rest. That means if you really want a fat burn workout you should hang out at home on the sofa watching T.V. or better yet, just go to sleep. Sounds like the All-American workout. But… with more than 35% of the American population tipping the scales at obese or beyond obese that strategy may not “carry that much weight.”
Low intensity exercise should be used at the outset of an exercise program to bring your cardiovascular system up to speed. Individual results may vary, but after 6 weeks of consistently sustained periods of low intensity exercise your heart and lungs should be ready for a more intense workout. Which will be required if you are to continue losing body fat.
You can lose weight simply by cutting back on calories.
FACT
Don’t ignore the law of thermodynamics; which is to say that if you input (or eat) less calories than you expend you will operate at a deficit (lose fat). If you input more calories than you use during the day you will operate at a surplus (store fat).
It follows then that by simply reducing your caloric intake you will lose weight.
But combining exercise with diet will help you lose weight more quickly. More importantly, it will help you keep the pounds off long term.
“The majority of participants in the National Weight Control Registry (a survey of thousands of people who have lost a significant amount of weight and kept it off for years) report that a consistent exercise program is one of their key weight maintenance strategies.”
http://www.uchsc.edu/nutrition/WyattJortberg/nwcr.htm
It’s sort of like gaining wealth. You can increase your income to increase wealth, or simply reduce your spending. But the quickest way to wealth is to reduce spending, while increasing your ability to earn.
Sure you can secure your way to a comfortable retirement by living like you are a pauper all the time… but would you really want to? What kind of life would that be for you? The same applies to just eating less food or cutting back on calories. Denying yourself of personal liberties is not the only way to your goals. Also, don’t ignore the minimum amount of calories you must consume to live a balanced lifestyle. For more diet information go to: http://www.sparkpeople.com/.
……….
So… how did you do?
Are you upset, frustrated, re-affirmed, or bewildered? Look… what’s most important in any undertaking is a keen, pulsating desire to achieve. With enough will power you will reach your goals.
Have the courage to see through tough times and to view setbacks as only temporary.
The next quiz is next week… so brush up on your study skills by getting actively involved in your fitness education.
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