Just wanted everyone to know of this great deal. Dax Moy started his version of the 12 Days of Christmas by organizing a massive give away of some great information. I learned a lot from this event last year and they are promising even more this year.
Go to www.the12daysoffitness.com to sign up for a ton of free stuff.
Hope you are having a great holiday season and are planning out your meals along with getting in your workouts.
Make it a great day!
The Fitness Buff,
Rob Crenshaw
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
How to Avoid the Traditional Holiday Weight Gain
How to Avoid the Traditional Holiday Weight Gain
The average weight gain for Americans between Thanksgiving and New Years Day is between 7 to 10 pounds. With the increase in holiday parties and abundance of holiday treats coupled with the reduction of natural sunlight, it may seem hard to keep a physically active lifestyle and continue to eat healthy. People also approach the extra parties in a way that actually harms them more than helping them. In this article I will discuss the typical choices that people make that hinder their weight control efforts. Then I will illuminate ways for you to approach the holiday season in a manner that will help keep the weight gain off as well as even help you lose some extra body fat. With these tips, you will have momentum going into the New Year that will kick start your year on a good step.
With the approach of the holiday season, a few things happen. First, the time of natural daylight is reduced daily. Second, people tend to host more parties, bring in more food to the office and increase their consumption of sweets. Third, schedules seem to fill up more than any other time of year. The combination of these three occurrences reduces most people’s activity levels, increases their caloric consumption and increases their stress levels. When this happens, the body turns into a fat storing machine instead of a fat burning machine.
People are well aware of the traditional gain during the holidays. This is no secret to anyone. Just listen to any conversation around the holidays and at some point this topic will come up. Even though everyone seems to know that this happens, they still make choices that lend to the fat gain. First, people don’t get out in the sunlight as much. Yes, it is colder and most people are at work when the sun is out and that makes it harder. Although daylight does not directly correlate to weight loss or gain, it has other benefits that help improve health and mood that in turn help you feel better. The increase in Vitamin D is a major one. What the reduced amount of sunlight does affect is people’s activity levels. When there is more sun, people tend to get outside and do more. When it gets dark before people return from work, they tend to stay inside without physical activity. On top of that, the clouds just seem to hang around making the days grey. We use the sunlight to help produce serotonin and with the shorter days and more cloud cover we have less ability to produce serotonin. Our body uses serotonin to help keep our moods up. According to Wikipedia, the function of serotonin in the central nervous system is believed to play an important role as a neurotransmitter in the regulation of anger, aggression, body temperature, mood, sleep, and appetite. Eat foods such as mushrooms, fruits, and vegetables especially foods such as bananas, pineapples, plums, turkey and milk that contain tryptophan to increase your level of serotonin. Tryptophan is used by your body to produce serotonin. This will help you sleep better giving you more energy during the day and allowing your body to recover and process the food from the previous day which in turn will decrease the amount of fat your body stores.
Second, there is an increase in parties with more food, more food brought into the office and an increase in sweets. Even those that have great eating habits during the year are tempted by the onslaught of food and end up consuming more calories than normal. Everyone, again, knows this and they try to make choices to reduce their caloric intake. Except their choices lead to other problems. They will skip eating throughout the day so that they can overeat at the party. Their metabolism slows down during the starvation part of the day causing the body to store whatever it can as fat while breaking down muscle tissue to provide energy for the body to function. Then, when the body is in this state of storing, they eat a lot of food in one sitting. On days that there isn’t a party, there are sweets set out all day long tempting people to eat them. These treats are usually high in carbohydrates and sugars causing high levels of insulin to be produced by the body. Insulin holds the keys to unlock the doors to the fat storage closets.
Third, because of all the parties, travelling to see family, school concerts, final exams, or year end projects, the schedule gets overwhelmed making it harder to fit in time for physical activities as well as eating correctly. This increases stress levels, reduces sleep times, and again, takes away time for working out. Again, this lends to more fat production and less lean body mass. Add in the extra calories that most people take in and you get the magic potion for weight gain.
What can you do about it?
Below is a list of habits people do during the holiday season that lend to unwanted weight gain and ways to avoid these choices. Following these simple suggestions will allow you to enjoy the holidays with friends and family without the guilt and without the weight gain.
False Habit 1. I will skip breakfast and lunch so I can eat a lot at dinner/party and still be under my calorie limit.
Suggestion – Skipping meals is not a good choice. This lowers your metabolism and causes your body to go into starvation mode. The body needs energy so in starvation mode the body will store what it can as fat and then break down muscle for energy. This also causes you to be extra hungry when you do get to the dinner/party so you tend to load up on the sweets and carbs the body is craving first. This onslaught of carbs causes a huge spike in insulin opening the fat storage cells. Also, because you have starved yourself most of the day, you are more likely to overeat. Eat breakfast, lunch and a few snacks to keep your hormone levels even throughout the day and you will be less hungry for dinner.
False Habit 2. I need to get back for seconds before anyone else does to get more of the good stuff.
Suggestion - Although this may be true and if you don’t get right back up, you may miss out on the extra helping of marshmallow yams. Even though you may not feel full at the time, you probably have eaten enough for your body to digest and use. Since most of the dishes made for the holidays are mostly carbohydrates, the body response system to being full isn’t shut off as soon. The body will send a signal to the brain saying it is no longer hungry when you eat proteins sooner than when you eat carbohydrates. If you wait until everyone else gets seconds, two things will happen. First, usually most of the sweets and carb laden foods will be gone and the protein rich turkey will be left allowing you to keep your insulin levels down. Second, the body will have time to send the “full” signal to the brain and you may not even feel like getting seconds. Then you can enjoy the great pumpkin pie with less guilt.
False Habit 3. I will eat a huge meal and then take a nap and sleep it off.
Suggestion – Ah yes! The wonderful nap after eating the nap-inducing turkey… How can you not take part of this tradition! With all the running around in preparation for the dinner, the rest time after is usually a welcome event. As I stated earlier, most holiday meals are predominately carbohydrates. It would be better to go for a walk or keep moving around right after eating to use as much as that energy as you can. Then, take your long awaited nap. Granted, the weather may not be the best for walking outdoors, but there are numerous options you can do to be active after the meal. Cleaning up can be everyone’s job and you can get in a lot of walking by taking one thing at a time to the kitchen. There are plenty of 24 hour fitness facilities (Like Snap Fitness) that allow you access at anytime and you can take a quick stroll on one of the treadmills.
False Habit 4. I have to eat this, my aunt/grandma/brother made it.
Suggestion – Just because a loved one made something doesn’t mean that you have to eat it. There is an episode of NBC’s Friends where Rachel is in charge of the dessert. She makes an English Truffle but didn’t realize the pages were stuck together so ended up making half a truffle and half Sheppard’s pie. Her friends knew that she had made the mistake but instead of telling her that they didn’t want to eat the combination of meat and banana crème, they lied to her as they each hid their desserts around the apartment so they wouldn’t hurt her feelings.
One of my clients knows that going to her in-laws means nothing but sweets and fat laden food so she is making her own dishes to pass. And to get over the awkwardness of bringing more food, she is going to tell them that she just had to try this new recipe and figured it would be nice to bring some for everyone.
So, does this mean that you should avoid parties? No! But planning ahead will help you keep your metabolism up as well as give you the freedom to have that piece of pie your aunt made just for you. Start planning the week before. Plan your meals out for the week to make sure you are getting the right amount of calories, protein, carbohydrates, and fats in your diet. Then on the day of the big feast, stick to your normal diet (which should include breakfast, a healthy snack, lunch, and another snack just before the party) and then use the meal at the party as your “cheat” meal for the week. After the first plate, give yourself 20 minutes before heading back for more. This way, the signal your stomach has sent to your brain saying it is full will actually get there before you try stuffing in more food. Also, plan a rigorous exercise sometime during the day. Get out and play in that family football game or go for a brisk walk. It has been shown that weight training will keep your metabolism revving for longer period of time after the workout than just cardio exercising. So if you can get to the gym, then by all means plan when you will go and then go.
If you are so busy throughout the whole week that you are unable to plan time during at least 3 days a week to exercise, there are plenty of things to do during your daily life that won’t add extra amount of time and will increase the amount of calories you burn throughout the day. Anytime you can increase the amount you move, you increase the amount of calories you are burning. Instead of sitting in your car in the drive through at the bank, pharmacy, or (I don’t even want to say it…) fast food restaurant park your car, get out and walk into the building. Not only will you get the added benefit from walking, you also get a lift from the face to face contact. And when you do park your car, don’t sit and wait for the closest space to open up. Park in the first one you see, or the farthest one there is to also increase the amount you walk. At the office, you can stand while on the phone to burn more calories than just sitting. On your bathroom breaks, take the stairs to the ones on the floor above or below you. At home, you can exaggerate the movements when cleaning to increase the caloric burn. If you have younger children, use them as weights as you do squats and shoulder presses or chest presses if you are lying down. The increased physical contact will help build your bond as well as burn more calories.
Even though you get a vacation day from work on the holidays, try to keep on schedule with your nutrition and exercise programs. Eat early, eat often, keep proteins and carbohydrates even as possible and move. As one of my former clients stated; “Put down the food and get off the couch.” If you can get through the holidays and maintain your weight and muscle mass, consider yourself ahead of the game. With my simple tips listed above, you should have no problem doing just that and may even shed a few pounds of fat. Make it a great holiday season!
Rob Crenshaw,
The Fitness Buff
The average weight gain for Americans between Thanksgiving and New Years Day is between 7 to 10 pounds. With the increase in holiday parties and abundance of holiday treats coupled with the reduction of natural sunlight, it may seem hard to keep a physically active lifestyle and continue to eat healthy. People also approach the extra parties in a way that actually harms them more than helping them. In this article I will discuss the typical choices that people make that hinder their weight control efforts. Then I will illuminate ways for you to approach the holiday season in a manner that will help keep the weight gain off as well as even help you lose some extra body fat. With these tips, you will have momentum going into the New Year that will kick start your year on a good step.
With the approach of the holiday season, a few things happen. First, the time of natural daylight is reduced daily. Second, people tend to host more parties, bring in more food to the office and increase their consumption of sweets. Third, schedules seem to fill up more than any other time of year. The combination of these three occurrences reduces most people’s activity levels, increases their caloric consumption and increases their stress levels. When this happens, the body turns into a fat storing machine instead of a fat burning machine.
People are well aware of the traditional gain during the holidays. This is no secret to anyone. Just listen to any conversation around the holidays and at some point this topic will come up. Even though everyone seems to know that this happens, they still make choices that lend to the fat gain. First, people don’t get out in the sunlight as much. Yes, it is colder and most people are at work when the sun is out and that makes it harder. Although daylight does not directly correlate to weight loss or gain, it has other benefits that help improve health and mood that in turn help you feel better. The increase in Vitamin D is a major one. What the reduced amount of sunlight does affect is people’s activity levels. When there is more sun, people tend to get outside and do more. When it gets dark before people return from work, they tend to stay inside without physical activity. On top of that, the clouds just seem to hang around making the days grey. We use the sunlight to help produce serotonin and with the shorter days and more cloud cover we have less ability to produce serotonin. Our body uses serotonin to help keep our moods up. According to Wikipedia, the function of serotonin in the central nervous system is believed to play an important role as a neurotransmitter in the regulation of anger, aggression, body temperature, mood, sleep, and appetite. Eat foods such as mushrooms, fruits, and vegetables especially foods such as bananas, pineapples, plums, turkey and milk that contain tryptophan to increase your level of serotonin. Tryptophan is used by your body to produce serotonin. This will help you sleep better giving you more energy during the day and allowing your body to recover and process the food from the previous day which in turn will decrease the amount of fat your body stores.
Second, there is an increase in parties with more food, more food brought into the office and an increase in sweets. Even those that have great eating habits during the year are tempted by the onslaught of food and end up consuming more calories than normal. Everyone, again, knows this and they try to make choices to reduce their caloric intake. Except their choices lead to other problems. They will skip eating throughout the day so that they can overeat at the party. Their metabolism slows down during the starvation part of the day causing the body to store whatever it can as fat while breaking down muscle tissue to provide energy for the body to function. Then, when the body is in this state of storing, they eat a lot of food in one sitting. On days that there isn’t a party, there are sweets set out all day long tempting people to eat them. These treats are usually high in carbohydrates and sugars causing high levels of insulin to be produced by the body. Insulin holds the keys to unlock the doors to the fat storage closets.
Third, because of all the parties, travelling to see family, school concerts, final exams, or year end projects, the schedule gets overwhelmed making it harder to fit in time for physical activities as well as eating correctly. This increases stress levels, reduces sleep times, and again, takes away time for working out. Again, this lends to more fat production and less lean body mass. Add in the extra calories that most people take in and you get the magic potion for weight gain.
What can you do about it?
Below is a list of habits people do during the holiday season that lend to unwanted weight gain and ways to avoid these choices. Following these simple suggestions will allow you to enjoy the holidays with friends and family without the guilt and without the weight gain.
False Habit 1. I will skip breakfast and lunch so I can eat a lot at dinner/party and still be under my calorie limit.
Suggestion – Skipping meals is not a good choice. This lowers your metabolism and causes your body to go into starvation mode. The body needs energy so in starvation mode the body will store what it can as fat and then break down muscle for energy. This also causes you to be extra hungry when you do get to the dinner/party so you tend to load up on the sweets and carbs the body is craving first. This onslaught of carbs causes a huge spike in insulin opening the fat storage cells. Also, because you have starved yourself most of the day, you are more likely to overeat. Eat breakfast, lunch and a few snacks to keep your hormone levels even throughout the day and you will be less hungry for dinner.
False Habit 2. I need to get back for seconds before anyone else does to get more of the good stuff.
Suggestion - Although this may be true and if you don’t get right back up, you may miss out on the extra helping of marshmallow yams. Even though you may not feel full at the time, you probably have eaten enough for your body to digest and use. Since most of the dishes made for the holidays are mostly carbohydrates, the body response system to being full isn’t shut off as soon. The body will send a signal to the brain saying it is no longer hungry when you eat proteins sooner than when you eat carbohydrates. If you wait until everyone else gets seconds, two things will happen. First, usually most of the sweets and carb laden foods will be gone and the protein rich turkey will be left allowing you to keep your insulin levels down. Second, the body will have time to send the “full” signal to the brain and you may not even feel like getting seconds. Then you can enjoy the great pumpkin pie with less guilt.
False Habit 3. I will eat a huge meal and then take a nap and sleep it off.
Suggestion – Ah yes! The wonderful nap after eating the nap-inducing turkey… How can you not take part of this tradition! With all the running around in preparation for the dinner, the rest time after is usually a welcome event. As I stated earlier, most holiday meals are predominately carbohydrates. It would be better to go for a walk or keep moving around right after eating to use as much as that energy as you can. Then, take your long awaited nap. Granted, the weather may not be the best for walking outdoors, but there are numerous options you can do to be active after the meal. Cleaning up can be everyone’s job and you can get in a lot of walking by taking one thing at a time to the kitchen. There are plenty of 24 hour fitness facilities (Like Snap Fitness) that allow you access at anytime and you can take a quick stroll on one of the treadmills.
False Habit 4. I have to eat this, my aunt/grandma/brother made it.
Suggestion – Just because a loved one made something doesn’t mean that you have to eat it. There is an episode of NBC’s Friends where Rachel is in charge of the dessert. She makes an English Truffle but didn’t realize the pages were stuck together so ended up making half a truffle and half Sheppard’s pie. Her friends knew that she had made the mistake but instead of telling her that they didn’t want to eat the combination of meat and banana crème, they lied to her as they each hid their desserts around the apartment so they wouldn’t hurt her feelings.
One of my clients knows that going to her in-laws means nothing but sweets and fat laden food so she is making her own dishes to pass. And to get over the awkwardness of bringing more food, she is going to tell them that she just had to try this new recipe and figured it would be nice to bring some for everyone.
So, does this mean that you should avoid parties? No! But planning ahead will help you keep your metabolism up as well as give you the freedom to have that piece of pie your aunt made just for you. Start planning the week before. Plan your meals out for the week to make sure you are getting the right amount of calories, protein, carbohydrates, and fats in your diet. Then on the day of the big feast, stick to your normal diet (which should include breakfast, a healthy snack, lunch, and another snack just before the party) and then use the meal at the party as your “cheat” meal for the week. After the first plate, give yourself 20 minutes before heading back for more. This way, the signal your stomach has sent to your brain saying it is full will actually get there before you try stuffing in more food. Also, plan a rigorous exercise sometime during the day. Get out and play in that family football game or go for a brisk walk. It has been shown that weight training will keep your metabolism revving for longer period of time after the workout than just cardio exercising. So if you can get to the gym, then by all means plan when you will go and then go.
If you are so busy throughout the whole week that you are unable to plan time during at least 3 days a week to exercise, there are plenty of things to do during your daily life that won’t add extra amount of time and will increase the amount of calories you burn throughout the day. Anytime you can increase the amount you move, you increase the amount of calories you are burning. Instead of sitting in your car in the drive through at the bank, pharmacy, or (I don’t even want to say it…) fast food restaurant park your car, get out and walk into the building. Not only will you get the added benefit from walking, you also get a lift from the face to face contact. And when you do park your car, don’t sit and wait for the closest space to open up. Park in the first one you see, or the farthest one there is to also increase the amount you walk. At the office, you can stand while on the phone to burn more calories than just sitting. On your bathroom breaks, take the stairs to the ones on the floor above or below you. At home, you can exaggerate the movements when cleaning to increase the caloric burn. If you have younger children, use them as weights as you do squats and shoulder presses or chest presses if you are lying down. The increased physical contact will help build your bond as well as burn more calories.
Even though you get a vacation day from work on the holidays, try to keep on schedule with your nutrition and exercise programs. Eat early, eat often, keep proteins and carbohydrates even as possible and move. As one of my former clients stated; “Put down the food and get off the couch.” If you can get through the holidays and maintain your weight and muscle mass, consider yourself ahead of the game. With my simple tips listed above, you should have no problem doing just that and may even shed a few pounds of fat. Make it a great holiday season!
Rob Crenshaw,
The Fitness Buff
Sunday, November 16, 2008
DID YOU KNOW…?
THE AVERAGE WEIGHT GAIN BETWEEN THANKSGIVING AND NEW YEARS IS 7 - 10 POUNDS!
COME LEARN HOW TO KEEP THE AVERAGE WEIGHT GAIN FROM HAPPENING TO YOU!
10:00am Saturday, November 22nd
The “Fitness Buff” Rob Crenshaw, NSCA-CPT will be holding a 1 hour seminar to provide tips on how to keep off the extra weight and still enjoy all the parties and meals.
How to Avoid the “Traditional” Holiday Weight Gain
Did you know that the average person gains 7-10 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Years? With all the parties, food, and shorter days it is easy to let things go and let out the belt a bit.
Come find out easy tips you can do that will help you not only keep from gaining weight, but even keep losing the body fat all while enjoying all the festivities the Holiday Season brings!
Join me at 10:00 a.m. Saturday, November 22nd, 2008 at The Medical Associates’ Crossings building at the corner of Silver Spring Drive and Creekwood Crossing. Members of Snap Fitness get free entry with membership card, and it is only $5 for non-members.
THE AVERAGE WEIGHT GAIN BETWEEN THANKSGIVING AND NEW YEARS IS 7 - 10 POUNDS!
COME LEARN HOW TO KEEP THE AVERAGE WEIGHT GAIN FROM HAPPENING TO YOU!
10:00am Saturday, November 22nd
The “Fitness Buff” Rob Crenshaw, NSCA-CPT will be holding a 1 hour seminar to provide tips on how to keep off the extra weight and still enjoy all the parties and meals.
How to Avoid the “Traditional” Holiday Weight Gain
Did you know that the average person gains 7-10 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Years? With all the parties, food, and shorter days it is easy to let things go and let out the belt a bit.
Come find out easy tips you can do that will help you not only keep from gaining weight, but even keep losing the body fat all while enjoying all the festivities the Holiday Season brings!
Join me at 10:00 a.m. Saturday, November 22nd, 2008 at The Medical Associates’ Crossings building at the corner of Silver Spring Drive and Creekwood Crossing. Members of Snap Fitness get free entry with membership card, and it is only $5 for non-members.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Gratefulness in Times of Not so Good
This is just a reminder, which we all need especially me, about the challenge of being thankful 1000 times before Thanksgiving. How are you doing?
We all have experienced bad times in our lives. Some were far more negative than others and some just seemed really bad in the moment. I have had two different areas in my life where I have had negative experiences. When I focus on either one of these situations, I get really down, or upset, or any other negative emotion. I then recently found out that I have a friend who was diagnosed with a fatal disease. I realized two things when I heard about this horrible thing. First, my problems were nowhere near as bad as this one. And Second, even though mine are no where near as bad, when I focused on them, they still caused real strong negative emotions.
So my choices were two. One is to focus on my friends health, which also causes negative emotions, but keeps my thoughts off of my own issues. The other one is to look at the issues in my life that are causing negative emotion, look them right in the eye and find what ever positive I could find. Sometimes it is like trying to find Waldo, but eventually you will find one. And when you find one and focus on that one, another one appears, and then another and then another. Then all of the sudden these issues that always caused negative thoughts and emotions are now barely even there and you have positive thought. Be grateful for every positive you can find, and more will come.
"Ok, Fitness Buff, what does this have to do with fitness?"
Fitness isn't just physical. You need to work in all of the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of fitness to get the best results. This challenge will help improve 3 of these 4 and can be applied to the fourth.
We all have experienced bad times in our lives. Some were far more negative than others and some just seemed really bad in the moment. I have had two different areas in my life where I have had negative experiences. When I focus on either one of these situations, I get really down, or upset, or any other negative emotion. I then recently found out that I have a friend who was diagnosed with a fatal disease. I realized two things when I heard about this horrible thing. First, my problems were nowhere near as bad as this one. And Second, even though mine are no where near as bad, when I focused on them, they still caused real strong negative emotions.
So my choices were two. One is to focus on my friends health, which also causes negative emotions, but keeps my thoughts off of my own issues. The other one is to look at the issues in my life that are causing negative emotion, look them right in the eye and find what ever positive I could find. Sometimes it is like trying to find Waldo, but eventually you will find one. And when you find one and focus on that one, another one appears, and then another and then another. Then all of the sudden these issues that always caused negative thoughts and emotions are now barely even there and you have positive thought. Be grateful for every positive you can find, and more will come.
"Ok, Fitness Buff, what does this have to do with fitness?"
Fitness isn't just physical. You need to work in all of the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of fitness to get the best results. This challenge will help improve 3 of these 4 and can be applied to the fourth.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Thank You for not Complaining
There are 4 weeks until Thanksgiving. I am challenging you to give thanks for something 1,000 times between now and then. The rules are simple; you just have to say thanks for anything. This can actually be thanking someone for something or it can be a thought in your head being thankful that you can walk up stairs.
How this came around… My good friend, Nicole Isler, is reading the book, “The No Complaining Rule,“ by Jon Gordon and we challenged each other to not complain for a week. After a day of realizing how much complaining I actually did, I decided that instead of trying to not do something, I would try to do something that was the opposite. So in the clarity of the early morning, just waking up state, I figured I would give as much thanks as I could. That is when the 4 weeks until Thanksgiving challenge came to mind.
How about you? Will you help me out and give thanks 1,000 times between now and Thanksgiving!
Try it and see what happens. Let me know how it works for you. Post your realizations here on my blog.
Thank you for taking the time to read my idea!
And as always, make it a great day!
The Fitness Buff,
Rob Crenshaw
How this came around… My good friend, Nicole Isler, is reading the book, “The No Complaining Rule,“ by Jon Gordon and we challenged each other to not complain for a week. After a day of realizing how much complaining I actually did, I decided that instead of trying to not do something, I would try to do something that was the opposite. So in the clarity of the early morning, just waking up state, I figured I would give as much thanks as I could. That is when the 4 weeks until Thanksgiving challenge came to mind.
How about you? Will you help me out and give thanks 1,000 times between now and Thanksgiving!
Try it and see what happens. Let me know how it works for you. Post your realizations here on my blog.
Thank you for taking the time to read my idea!
And as always, make it a great day!
The Fitness Buff,
Rob Crenshaw
Monday, October 27, 2008
My good friend's No Excuse Weight Loss program
My good friend that I have known for almost 2 decades is living in his fitness studio, sleeping only 7 hours, using only 4 items to cook food, and only working out a limited time each day to show that anyone can reduce their body fat with any schedule or circumstance. Check it out and follow his blog and witness his transformation, his workouts, and his nutrition on his live web cam, his daily pictures or videos.
I know this is helping me continue to strive for my goals each day.
No Excuses... www.noexcusesfatloss.com
Check it out now!
Make it a great day!!!
The Fitness Buff!
I know this is helping me continue to strive for my goals each day.
No Excuses... www.noexcusesfatloss.com
Check it out now!
Make it a great day!!!
The Fitness Buff!
Sunday, October 26, 2008
My Featured Interview by The You Can Fly Coach
I wanted to share with everyone this great interview that Nicole Isler, The You Can Fly Coach conducted with me. You can visit her website at www.youcanflycoaching.com to find out more about this amazing coach. I have personally seen people transform right in front of my eyes because of the insights that Nicole shared. Enjoy!
Click here to hear the interview!
Make it a great day!
The Fitness Buff
Click here to hear the interview!
Make it a great day!
The Fitness Buff
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Where are you going?
Have you ever went out, got in your car, started driving without even knowing where you are going? More than likely, you wouldn't get into your car and start driving without a destination. Of course, if you are like me, you may have one place in mind and end up driving towards another because one reason or the other, especially if they are in a similar direction. Both of these examples, actually, apply to fitness as well.
Most people that I talk with have a general idea of what they want to accomplish from their efforts in the gym. "I want to lose weight." That is great, and by all means, I hope you do. But saying that is like saying, "I am going to drive to California." Great! Get in your car, head west, and you have a 50% chance of hitting somewhere in California. Now if you define your destination as Los Angeles, then you know that at certain crossroads, you will have to turn to get you there. The same applies to weight control. Just losing weight is like driving to California, but losing 15 pounds is like driving to LA. Now, getting even more specific, let’s say you want to go to a certain road, or even a specific address in LA. That would be the same as saying, “I want to lose 15 pounds, 10% body fat, and 5 inches around my waist.” Taking this one step farther, you can get even more specific. “I want to go to room 415, on the fourth floor of the building at 1122 Fitness Way, Fit Town, USA and get there on Friday afternoon.” That would be the same as saying, “I want to lose 15 pounds, 10% body fat, 5 inches around my waist, have nice toned firm legs, a little definition in my arms, and a flat firm midsection by my daughter’s wedding.”
All the above options are great and will get you going in the right direction. What do most people do when they want to make a cross country journey? They map it out. They do this by themselves with a huge atlas, call AAA for directions, or go on to the many navigation websites available. And again, the more specific you get the better end result you will have. If you ask for a map to California, the result will probably take you to the capitol city. Then if you narrow it a bit, it will take you to the City Hall of LA. But if you get real specific, then it will take you right to where you want to go. Following the map will get you where you want to go. Granted, there are those few that will just get in and drive and enjoy the adventure, no matter how long it takes them.
The same works for fitness goals. Depending on how specific you want to get, you will need to determine how you will attain them. Most people will go to a gym or buy fitness DVDs and start doing something, cardio or weight training. This is not a bad thing, but it equates to getting in your car without a map and heading in the direction that you think is correct. The next step up from this are those that look at general fitness tips offered in popular magazines. Again, this isn't bad and I use a lot of exercises I see in magazines myself and for my clients. The problem is that they come off as the end all to your fitness goal and not just as a part of the whole picture. And if not used correctly, they may take you way off course. This would be like someone telling you to take Interstate 80 to get to LA. It is in the right direction, but won't exactly get you where you want to go.
I personally have experienced this first hand. For a few years now, I have had a general concept of what I wanted to accomplish by working out. I wanted to be in shape, be able to play soccer, and be able to show my clients what I needed to in order to help them the best I could. But I didn’t have a specific goal in mind. Just recently, I have decided to enter into a competition. I am not sure if it will be a body building, fitness model, or muscle model competition as I have to look at all of my options about events and dates. Right now, I am at the travel agent saying I want to go on vacation sometime between this date and that date. Since I have decided to do this, I have had a more specific idea of what I want to accomplish and I have changed my routines considerably. I do feel more energetic about my workouts as I have a goal in mind and have already seen results.
The people that get the best results and actually end up at their fitness goals are the ones that map out their route. If you don't know how this is done, you can hire a trainer to do it for you. You still have to drive the car, but the trainer can be your GPS Navigational System on board with you the whole way. When you encounter a flat tire or road construction, the trainer will give you the best way to fix the tire or best route to get around the delay. The other thing a trainer can do is give you different tools to use along the way. In a trip from the Mid-west to California, you will encounter really really flat land, rolling hills, and steep mountains. In your journey along your fitness goals, you will encounter rapid weight loss, no weight loss, and every other fluctuation along the way. The trainer will be there to change up your routine so that you aren't trying to use a high gear to get up a steep incline. A trainer will keep you headed towards your goal and not let you get side tracked.
Meet with a trainer today and they will help you define your goals, lay out a map to follow to your goals, and give you tools along the way to overcome any obstacles you may face. The more specific you can be about your goals, the easier it will be know; what route to use, if you are staying on that track, and how to determine your results along the way.
You can contact me at robcrenshaw@hotmail.com, please put Fitness Question or Fitness Buff in the subject line.
Most people that I talk with have a general idea of what they want to accomplish from their efforts in the gym. "I want to lose weight." That is great, and by all means, I hope you do. But saying that is like saying, "I am going to drive to California." Great! Get in your car, head west, and you have a 50% chance of hitting somewhere in California. Now if you define your destination as Los Angeles, then you know that at certain crossroads, you will have to turn to get you there. The same applies to weight control. Just losing weight is like driving to California, but losing 15 pounds is like driving to LA. Now, getting even more specific, let’s say you want to go to a certain road, or even a specific address in LA. That would be the same as saying, “I want to lose 15 pounds, 10% body fat, and 5 inches around my waist.” Taking this one step farther, you can get even more specific. “I want to go to room 415, on the fourth floor of the building at 1122 Fitness Way, Fit Town, USA and get there on Friday afternoon.” That would be the same as saying, “I want to lose 15 pounds, 10% body fat, 5 inches around my waist, have nice toned firm legs, a little definition in my arms, and a flat firm midsection by my daughter’s wedding.”
All the above options are great and will get you going in the right direction. What do most people do when they want to make a cross country journey? They map it out. They do this by themselves with a huge atlas, call AAA for directions, or go on to the many navigation websites available. And again, the more specific you get the better end result you will have. If you ask for a map to California, the result will probably take you to the capitol city. Then if you narrow it a bit, it will take you to the City Hall of LA. But if you get real specific, then it will take you right to where you want to go. Following the map will get you where you want to go. Granted, there are those few that will just get in and drive and enjoy the adventure, no matter how long it takes them.
The same works for fitness goals. Depending on how specific you want to get, you will need to determine how you will attain them. Most people will go to a gym or buy fitness DVDs and start doing something, cardio or weight training. This is not a bad thing, but it equates to getting in your car without a map and heading in the direction that you think is correct. The next step up from this are those that look at general fitness tips offered in popular magazines. Again, this isn't bad and I use a lot of exercises I see in magazines myself and for my clients. The problem is that they come off as the end all to your fitness goal and not just as a part of the whole picture. And if not used correctly, they may take you way off course. This would be like someone telling you to take Interstate 80 to get to LA. It is in the right direction, but won't exactly get you where you want to go.
I personally have experienced this first hand. For a few years now, I have had a general concept of what I wanted to accomplish by working out. I wanted to be in shape, be able to play soccer, and be able to show my clients what I needed to in order to help them the best I could. But I didn’t have a specific goal in mind. Just recently, I have decided to enter into a competition. I am not sure if it will be a body building, fitness model, or muscle model competition as I have to look at all of my options about events and dates. Right now, I am at the travel agent saying I want to go on vacation sometime between this date and that date. Since I have decided to do this, I have had a more specific idea of what I want to accomplish and I have changed my routines considerably. I do feel more energetic about my workouts as I have a goal in mind and have already seen results.
The people that get the best results and actually end up at their fitness goals are the ones that map out their route. If you don't know how this is done, you can hire a trainer to do it for you. You still have to drive the car, but the trainer can be your GPS Navigational System on board with you the whole way. When you encounter a flat tire or road construction, the trainer will give you the best way to fix the tire or best route to get around the delay. The other thing a trainer can do is give you different tools to use along the way. In a trip from the Mid-west to California, you will encounter really really flat land, rolling hills, and steep mountains. In your journey along your fitness goals, you will encounter rapid weight loss, no weight loss, and every other fluctuation along the way. The trainer will be there to change up your routine so that you aren't trying to use a high gear to get up a steep incline. A trainer will keep you headed towards your goal and not let you get side tracked.
Meet with a trainer today and they will help you define your goals, lay out a map to follow to your goals, and give you tools along the way to overcome any obstacles you may face. The more specific you can be about your goals, the easier it will be know; what route to use, if you are staying on that track, and how to determine your results along the way.
You can contact me at robcrenshaw@hotmail.com, please put Fitness Question or Fitness Buff in the subject line.
Monday, September 22, 2008
What's so functional about that?
Everyone has seen someone standing on a BOSU ball doing dumb bell curls in the name of functional training. But is this true functional training? The answer, that is so often the answer for many things in personal training is, it depends. (Don't you feel satisfied now?)
Although this does increase your awareness of how your body moves and where it is in space, or what we like to call proprioception, it doesn't necessarily mean that it is functional. In order for an exercise to be functional, it must train the body to move in the most efficient manner to accomplish a normal task. For instance; a new mom bending over the railing of a crib to pick up a new born baby or a construction worker lifting a large sack of concrete mix from the ground to the mixer.
The body is made to do one or a combination of 4 different types of movement: Locomotion, elevation, pushing or pulling, and twisting. Every movement that you do during your day is made up of one or more of these movements. If you break each movement down to its basics and then training that specific movement in a similar manner, you will improve the efficiency of your body helping you do more with less effort and avoiding more injuries.
Remember, just because an exercise looks harder does not make it more functional. So in the case of someone doing dumb bell curls on a BOSU ball, unless they are standing on an unstable surface pulling things up in a curling manner, this exercise is not the best "functional" exercise.
Although this does increase your awareness of how your body moves and where it is in space, or what we like to call proprioception, it doesn't necessarily mean that it is functional. In order for an exercise to be functional, it must train the body to move in the most efficient manner to accomplish a normal task. For instance; a new mom bending over the railing of a crib to pick up a new born baby or a construction worker lifting a large sack of concrete mix from the ground to the mixer.
The body is made to do one or a combination of 4 different types of movement: Locomotion, elevation, pushing or pulling, and twisting. Every movement that you do during your day is made up of one or more of these movements. If you break each movement down to its basics and then training that specific movement in a similar manner, you will improve the efficiency of your body helping you do more with less effort and avoiding more injuries.
Remember, just because an exercise looks harder does not make it more functional. So in the case of someone doing dumb bell curls on a BOSU ball, unless they are standing on an unstable surface pulling things up in a curling manner, this exercise is not the best "functional" exercise.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Be Careful Who You Believe
"Bottom line - if you don’t want to eat breakfast - don't do it. Have some water, coffee and off you go."
That was from an trainer on an online trainer forum, a trainer who is supposed to help his clients live a healthy life. Now, everyone has their ideas on what exercises are the best for any given goal and usually everyone is right based on different reasons and usually with an “it depends” clarification. But when it comes to nutrition and diet, the science and chemistry behind it is fairly simple and straight forward. I know this because I read and research about it most of my free time and I have clients who have improved their lives based on what I know. Now, if this trainer had said "If you don't care about your health or losing body fat..." somewhere around the above statement, I would totally be in 100% agreement. But he didn't. Instead, he based it on the assumption that "cavemen" had to go out and fish or hunt for their breakfast, therefore, forgoing breakfast. I am not a historian, but I would guess the cavemen were hungry when they woke up so they started keeping food near by to eat when they woke up. Then this trainer even went as far as saying that this whole motivating factor behind pushing us to eat breakfast "is a concoction of all cereal and food companies forcing us to eat more and more." Two reasons that aren't based on any science at all.
Believe what you want to believe, but when it comes to finding information out; be sure that the information is credible. I have had many clients who were not eating breakfast when they started with me only to find that their energy increased throughout the day and started losing fat faster only after they started eating breakfast on a daily basis. If you want a bottom line, then here you go; eat early, eat often, and lose the fat!
You want to make sure you eat as soon as you can when you wake up. Then eat every 3 to 4 hours throughout the day with small portions. All of your meals ideally should include equal amounts of protein and carbs with a little bit of fat. Just make sure that you are getting the good carbs and the good fats. As always, there are exceptions and you should consult a registered dietitian if you have any questions.
If you have any questions about this, please feel free to contact me.
Rob Crenshaw, The Fitness Buff
That was from an trainer on an online trainer forum, a trainer who is supposed to help his clients live a healthy life. Now, everyone has their ideas on what exercises are the best for any given goal and usually everyone is right based on different reasons and usually with an “it depends” clarification. But when it comes to nutrition and diet, the science and chemistry behind it is fairly simple and straight forward. I know this because I read and research about it most of my free time and I have clients who have improved their lives based on what I know. Now, if this trainer had said "If you don't care about your health or losing body fat..." somewhere around the above statement, I would totally be in 100% agreement. But he didn't. Instead, he based it on the assumption that "cavemen" had to go out and fish or hunt for their breakfast, therefore, forgoing breakfast. I am not a historian, but I would guess the cavemen were hungry when they woke up so they started keeping food near by to eat when they woke up. Then this trainer even went as far as saying that this whole motivating factor behind pushing us to eat breakfast "is a concoction of all cereal and food companies forcing us to eat more and more." Two reasons that aren't based on any science at all.
Believe what you want to believe, but when it comes to finding information out; be sure that the information is credible. I have had many clients who were not eating breakfast when they started with me only to find that their energy increased throughout the day and started losing fat faster only after they started eating breakfast on a daily basis. If you want a bottom line, then here you go; eat early, eat often, and lose the fat!
You want to make sure you eat as soon as you can when you wake up. Then eat every 3 to 4 hours throughout the day with small portions. All of your meals ideally should include equal amounts of protein and carbs with a little bit of fat. Just make sure that you are getting the good carbs and the good fats. As always, there are exceptions and you should consult a registered dietitian if you have any questions.
If you have any questions about this, please feel free to contact me.
Rob Crenshaw, The Fitness Buff
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Check me out on Zegee
Check out this great website to help people find trainers. If you would like to work with me go to:
 |
| Free Personal Trainer Community for trainers and clients. |
Monday, July 7, 2008
Answer to scottspott's question
scottspott said...
"I have an interesting question...what is the difference between weight (resistance) training and strong flexing? For example, if I flex my biceps and triceps 20 times each to the point at which they are sore, and do this instead of using weights, will my arms increase in size and become stronger?"
This is a great question, scottspott. The simple answer is yes but your arms will not noticeably increase in size or become noticeably stronger. The only way to increase size and strength significantly in any muscle is to subject it to larger loads than it is used to pushing or pulling. So if you haven’t worked out at all, then using the antagonist muscle solely for resistance will initially get you a bit stronger and maybe a bit firmer, but probably not bigger.
Let me explain. If you wanted bigger biceps, then you would do curls or an action that causes you to bend your elbow from a straight arm position to a bent one shortening the biceps. You could try to use the antagonist, or your triceps, as resistance during this movement. The triceps are responsible for straightening your arm from a bent position to a straight one. Due to the basic laws of biomechanics where when one muscle contracts or shortens, the antagonist muscle must relax or elongate. They both can’t contract at the same time. You can squeeze or tense both at the same time but the benefit from this action will not be enough to improve strength or size as you need greater resistance. Just like if you are used to curling with a 20 lb weight and then you switched to a 2 lb weight, you wouldn’t get the increase in size or strength. Just squeezing both biceps and triceps is a type of isometric exercise where the joint angle and muscle length do not change. The strength gain will be only at that joint angle that you work it at.
You can strengthen your muscles and gain size just with your body alone. The famous Charles Atlas, who was the 97 lb weakling who became the “The World's Most Perfectly Developed Man” did develop his physique by using his own body for resistance. He would use his left arm to strengthen his right instead of just flexing his muscles. He also did body weight exercises like push ups and squats.
So if you want stronger and bigger muscles, you need to use external resistance in a dynamic exercise. That resistance can come in the form as another body part, a resistance band, or traditional weights.
"I have an interesting question...what is the difference between weight (resistance) training and strong flexing? For example, if I flex my biceps and triceps 20 times each to the point at which they are sore, and do this instead of using weights, will my arms increase in size and become stronger?"
This is a great question, scottspott. The simple answer is yes but your arms will not noticeably increase in size or become noticeably stronger. The only way to increase size and strength significantly in any muscle is to subject it to larger loads than it is used to pushing or pulling. So if you haven’t worked out at all, then using the antagonist muscle solely for resistance will initially get you a bit stronger and maybe a bit firmer, but probably not bigger.
Let me explain. If you wanted bigger biceps, then you would do curls or an action that causes you to bend your elbow from a straight arm position to a bent one shortening the biceps. You could try to use the antagonist, or your triceps, as resistance during this movement. The triceps are responsible for straightening your arm from a bent position to a straight one. Due to the basic laws of biomechanics where when one muscle contracts or shortens, the antagonist muscle must relax or elongate. They both can’t contract at the same time. You can squeeze or tense both at the same time but the benefit from this action will not be enough to improve strength or size as you need greater resistance. Just like if you are used to curling with a 20 lb weight and then you switched to a 2 lb weight, you wouldn’t get the increase in size or strength. Just squeezing both biceps and triceps is a type of isometric exercise where the joint angle and muscle length do not change. The strength gain will be only at that joint angle that you work it at.
You can strengthen your muscles and gain size just with your body alone. The famous Charles Atlas, who was the 97 lb weakling who became the “The World's Most Perfectly Developed Man” did develop his physique by using his own body for resistance. He would use his left arm to strengthen his right instead of just flexing his muscles. He also did body weight exercises like push ups and squats.
So if you want stronger and bigger muscles, you need to use external resistance in a dynamic exercise. That resistance can come in the form as another body part, a resistance band, or traditional weights.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
WOMEN WALKING THE PATH OF ENLIGHTENMENT AT LAPHAM PEAK
"Enlightenment isn't a goal, it's not a destination, it's the by-product of walking the path itself, rather it's the journey."
Life is so hectic sometimes that we miss the beauty along the way. It's time for a Spiritual Awakening!
Join us Sunday, July 20 for an energizing morning outdoors.
Hike the incredible trails of Lapham's Peak:
Connect with source energy! The trails wind through wooded hills and open meadows. Abundant bird life and wildlife can be observed from all trails. Get back to nature!
Group Workout: Move WellRob Crenshaw, NSCA-CPT, will take you through the Triple Target Transformation. T3 is a simple (and FUN!) exercise program you can learn to do at home that will work your larger calorie burning muscles, strengthen your core and tighten your hips, thighs and butt. All while you enjoy nature!Unite Our Spirit and Energy: Think WellNicole Isler, The "You Can Fly" Coach will present an energizing, dynamic heart-to-heart segment on the incredible power of our thoughts and emotions relating to health. Sure to be an empowering and uplifting experience you can't afford to miss! Embrace how to let your light shine!
Enjoy a Social Picnic after the Festivities:Please bring a healthy dish, snack or beverage to share.Yes, fun treats are welcome too!Network and Meet New Friends:When women gather magical things happen! This is a great opportunity to meet new friends, reunite with old friends and make fabulous business connections. Invite the important women in your life! Everyone is welcome! Are You ready to be awakened?
Meet at the tower, approximately 15 minutes early for check in. There is a $15.00 charge for this event payable to Nicole through this evite and a park entry fee of $7 (day), $25 (season) payable at the gate upon entry. Call Nicole Isler at (262) 436-0445 to register.
Life is so hectic sometimes that we miss the beauty along the way. It's time for a Spiritual Awakening!
Join us Sunday, July 20 for an energizing morning outdoors.
Hike the incredible trails of Lapham's Peak:
Connect with source energy! The trails wind through wooded hills and open meadows. Abundant bird life and wildlife can be observed from all trails. Get back to nature!
Group Workout: Move WellRob Crenshaw, NSCA-CPT, will take you through the Triple Target Transformation. T3 is a simple (and FUN!) exercise program you can learn to do at home that will work your larger calorie burning muscles, strengthen your core and tighten your hips, thighs and butt. All while you enjoy nature!Unite Our Spirit and Energy: Think WellNicole Isler, The "You Can Fly" Coach will present an energizing, dynamic heart-to-heart segment on the incredible power of our thoughts and emotions relating to health. Sure to be an empowering and uplifting experience you can't afford to miss! Embrace how to let your light shine!
Enjoy a Social Picnic after the Festivities:Please bring a healthy dish, snack or beverage to share.Yes, fun treats are welcome too!Network and Meet New Friends:When women gather magical things happen! This is a great opportunity to meet new friends, reunite with old friends and make fabulous business connections. Invite the important women in your life! Everyone is welcome! Are You ready to be awakened?
Meet at the tower, approximately 15 minutes early for check in. There is a $15.00 charge for this event payable to Nicole through this evite and a park entry fee of $7 (day), $25 (season) payable at the gate upon entry. Call Nicole Isler at (262) 436-0445 to register.
Friday, June 27, 2008
IF YOU WANT A FLAT STOMACH OR 6-PACK ABS,
IF YOU WANT A FLAT STOMACH OR 6-PACK ABS,
STOP DOING CRUNCHES,
SIT-UPS, AND AB MACHINES…
Ok, don’t actually stop doing your abdominal exercises; you need them to keep your core strong. Once you get rid of your belly fat, then having nicely sculpted abs will come in handy when you look in the mirror. In my experience, I have seen many people focus too much on just doing crunches, sit ups, ab-machines, or any number of gimmicks from the TV to try and get rid of that spare tire. The problem lies in that there is no such thing as spot reduction of fat and the abdominals are a very small muscle group relative to the rest of the body therefore not a huge calorie burning group.
Spot reduction is the belief that if I work a certain body part, then I can reduce the amount of fat in that area. Like working the stomach to reduce the spare tire, or working the inner thighs to reduce the fat that rubs together when you walk. The fact is that your body is your body and it will lose the fat where genetics determine. Usually it starts in the face and works its way down through the shoulders and then ultimately to the stomach and then the lower abdomen. But this only happens when you are getting enough calories in to sustain your body’s requirement and then are burning of the excess calories to require your body to use the fat stored as energy.
In order to get the best benefit from resistance training, you should focus on the major muscle groups, or the larger muscles of the body. These would be the chest, back and leg muscle groups. These muscles by themselves require a lot more energy to maintain themselves than all of the abdominal muscles combined. For every pound of muscle you build, your body will burn at least 50 more calories per day. You will more easily build that extra pound in the larger muscles. (Don’t worry, this doesn’t necessarily mean you will gain size, just a firmer muscle.)
Focus on the fat burning machines of the larger muscles that will do the work for you while you sit at your desk, behind your wheel or while you sleep. Then finish your workout with your ab exercises so that when you do reduce the fat around the belly, you will have a smooth defined mid section to show off at the beach.
STOP DOING CRUNCHES,
SIT-UPS, AND AB MACHINES…
Ok, don’t actually stop doing your abdominal exercises; you need them to keep your core strong. Once you get rid of your belly fat, then having nicely sculpted abs will come in handy when you look in the mirror. In my experience, I have seen many people focus too much on just doing crunches, sit ups, ab-machines, or any number of gimmicks from the TV to try and get rid of that spare tire. The problem lies in that there is no such thing as spot reduction of fat and the abdominals are a very small muscle group relative to the rest of the body therefore not a huge calorie burning group.
Spot reduction is the belief that if I work a certain body part, then I can reduce the amount of fat in that area. Like working the stomach to reduce the spare tire, or working the inner thighs to reduce the fat that rubs together when you walk. The fact is that your body is your body and it will lose the fat where genetics determine. Usually it starts in the face and works its way down through the shoulders and then ultimately to the stomach and then the lower abdomen. But this only happens when you are getting enough calories in to sustain your body’s requirement and then are burning of the excess calories to require your body to use the fat stored as energy.
In order to get the best benefit from resistance training, you should focus on the major muscle groups, or the larger muscles of the body. These would be the chest, back and leg muscle groups. These muscles by themselves require a lot more energy to maintain themselves than all of the abdominal muscles combined. For every pound of muscle you build, your body will burn at least 50 more calories per day. You will more easily build that extra pound in the larger muscles. (Don’t worry, this doesn’t necessarily mean you will gain size, just a firmer muscle.)
Focus on the fat burning machines of the larger muscles that will do the work for you while you sit at your desk, behind your wheel or while you sleep. Then finish your workout with your ab exercises so that when you do reduce the fat around the belly, you will have a smooth defined mid section to show off at the beach.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Strengthening your heart!
Strengthening your heart!
Robert B. Crenshaw, NSCA-CPT
Many people see the effects and understand the benefits of lifting weights to strengthen and build their skeletal muscles. The more you work a given muscle with proper nutrition, the bigger and/or denser that muscle gets, just look at any bodybuilder or fitness model. Also, the more you work a muscle or a set of muscles, the more calories you will burn causing a reduction in body fat percentage. Again, just look at bodybuilders or marathon runners for good examples. Although people tend to focus on the “mirror” muscles, or the muscles that you can physically see when you look in the mirror, many tend to overlook other muscles that you can’t see, but are much more important. Fortunately, most of these muscles are also improved when one works on the “mirror” muscles. These overlooked muscles include the diaphragm, the internal abdominals, and probably the most important one is the heart. So how do you target the heart to strengthen it and what are the benefits of doing so?
First, let’s get a direction in mind so we know where we are going. I am going to use and extreme example to describe the goals that we all should aim for in strengthening our hearts. Then I will get into the benefits of each of these areas. By focusing on something beyond where we want to get to, we will be sure to achieve our goals. Just like martial artist who demonstrate their skill by breaking a board by aiming for a spot behind the board, we will focus on levels beyond what we need for our fitness levels.
The extreme example is none other than the living cyclist legend, Lance Armstrong. Although he doesn’t hold the record in all the levels I will be describing, he probably has the strongest cardio system out there overall. Lance is the 5 time winner of the Tour de France. He has reigned over this grueling race for half a decade because of many factors. Most importantly for him, his lactate threshold is at a heart-rate of 178 beats per minute (bpm). This means that he can exercise at a level where his heart rate gets up to that point before lactic acid begins to enter the muscles which then causes fatigue. Most people don’t even workout on the treadmill at a heart-rate higher than 130-140. Combine this with the fact that his resting heart-rate is 32 to 34 bpm, almost half of the average person’s resting heart-rate and you can see why he can peddle at a much higher spin rate than most people without fatiguing. For a healthy heart, a lower resting heart-rate means a lower heart-rate when exercising at similar exertion levels compared to others. In other words, if I went jogging with Lance, his heart-rate would be much lower than mine even though we would be feeling the same amount of exertion. (Of course, my perceived exertion level may be higher than his.)
VO2max is the standard measure of aerobic fitness based on the body’s ability to take up oxygen. This is a measure of how the lungs can take oxygen out of the air we breathe in and put it into the blood stream and how the muscles then are able to take it out of the blood and utilize it for their needs. Lance’s level of 83.8 ml/kg/min is much higher than the average person whose levels measure in between 40-50 ml/kg/min. The average male endurance athlete usually has levels near 70 ml/kg/min. This is important, because the higher this number is, the fewer times the heart has to pump to get oxygenated blood to the muscles. If his blood had lower levels of oxygen, his heart would have to pump more often to get more blood to the muscles. Also, Lance’s heart is 30% larger than the average heart again allowing his heart to beat fewer times to push the needed blood through the body. This would be similar to someone with larger muscles being able to squeeze something harder than someone with smaller muscles.
Because of Lance’s training, he has strengthened his heart to accomplish all of this plus allow him to workout at a maximum heart rate of 201bpm. The average healthy 30 year old male should be very careful about working out at heart rates approaching 190bpm. An average healthy 50 year old male should only workout at a heart rate of 170 bpm under direct supervision of a physician.
Just like your skeletal muscles where you strengthen them by lifting heavier weights or pressing against bigger resistance, you have to strengthen your heart by exercising it against greater resistance. You wouldn’t start out trying to lift 500 lbs in the gym and you shouldn’t try to maximize your heart rate right from the start either. So let’s get into how you train to strengthen your heart.
The general belief is that you need to do cardio exercises such as running, cycling, or walking to work the heart. This is true, but it is not the only way to get your heart rate up.
When you increase the load on your muscles through resistance (weight training) or through increased frequency of use (running), the muscle requires more oxygen to perform its functions properly. It is the hearts responsibility to move the blood through the body to transport the oxygen from the lungs to the muscles and return the used oxygen (which has been combined with carbon to form carbon monoxide) back to the lungs to be expelled from the body. This is one way to increase the resistance against the heart. Another way is strictly through weight training. When you contract a muscle, it forces blood out of the muscle. The heart then has to push harder to get the blood back into that muscle after it relaxes. Jet pilots use this process to keep from blacking out in mid flight. They practice on contracting their neck muscles in such a way to keep blood in the head when they experience increased gravity forces. The harder and faster that you squeeze a muscle, the harder and faster your heart has to pump to get the blood back into the muscles.
This is very important in the strengthening of your heart. You need to increase how hard your heart has to work to have strength gains. If you did a bicep curl with just a bubble gum wrapper you wouldn’t see improvement in the strength or size of your bicep. The same concept implies to your heart. You aren’t going to strengthen your heart if you don’t require it to force more blood through your body. So when you work harder, either by running faster, peddling faster, or lifting heavier weights, more blood is returned to your heart causing more resistance for your heart to push it back through your body. This means that it is more important for you to work harder, or at a higher intensity, than it is for you to workout longer. The stronger your heart gets, the more blood it can pump with less effort. So how hard should you workout or at what intensity level? A fitness professional can help you determine what heart rate will be the best for you to target. But if you don’t have a heart rate monitor there is a simple way to determine how hard you should be working out. I will describe this when I talk about starting a workout program.
Benefits
The increase working capacity of the heart is just one of the benefits to strengthening your heart. Others include preventing heart disease (the leading cause of death in men and women) and stroke. The increased exercise will also cause the lowering of your blood pressure, the raising of your high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels (Healthy cholesterol) and the lowering of your low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels (Lazy cholesterol). Other benefits from exercising to strengthen your heart include the prevention or reduction of obesity, increase in mental health, and lower body fat percentages. The increase in blood flow will also bring more nutrients that the muscles need to at least maintain or grow allowing them to function better for better daily activity. It also helps in removing waste from your muscles, such as lactic acid that I described earlier when talking about Lance. Not only does this also improve the performance of your muscles, it reduces soreness after workouts.
Exercise
As I discussed earlier, both cardio workouts as well as weight training workouts help strengthen the heart. If you are new to weight training, start with machines and learn the proper way to set them up to avoid injury. Most gyms will have someone on staff to help you do this. Use a weight that is heavy enough to feel the resistance but light enough not to fatigue the muscle in 20 repetitions to start with. Once you get used to the movement, usually after a few times of trying it out, you can then increase the weight so that when you reach that twentieth repetition you feel that you couldn’t do one more. When this weight becomes easier add in another set until you are doing at least 3 sets of 18 reps. Whenever you feel that you can do 3 or 4 more after the last rep of the last set without resting, increase the weight the next time you workout. You will need to rest the muscles you worked for 48 hours so they can recover and repair themselves allowing them to grow stronger. You should notice that you are breathing heavier during and right after each set. This means that you are working the heart harder to get the blood back in those muscles. If you don’t experience heavier breathing, then try using more weight the next time.
When starting a cardio routine, your goal is to get at least 20 minutes at a higher intensity during your workout. At first, you may need to do light cardio for only 10 minutes. I have had clients who could only go for 5 minutes before needing a break. They soon were able to build that up 10, 15, and then up to 20 minutes. After you are used to 20 minutes, you can increase your time up to 45-60 minutes. There is no real need to go longer than 60 minutes unless you are training for a long run such as a 10K, 20K or marathon. Ideally, you should do 40 minutes of moderate to heavy intensity four days per week.
In order to workout at a moderate to heavy intensity, you need to know how it feels at those levels. Here are some basic guidelines to follow to determine how intense your workout is for you. Remember, your fitness level will determine how fast are hard you have to go to get to these levels. In other words, it will take a faster pace for Lance Armstrong to get to a moderate intensity than it will for the 65 year old obese person just starting out. If you feel weak or dizzy, slow down or stop, and of course, consult a physician if you have any health problems before you begin.
Intensity Levels Defined
Very low level of intensity - You are able to sing without difficulty.
Low level of intensity – You are able to talk without much difficulty.
Moderate level of intensity – You can talk with a little difficulty.
Heavy level of intensity – You can almost not talk at all.
Very high level of intensity – You can’t talk at all. This level is not recommended for beginners. You should only workout at this level after being on a program for a few months.
You do not need to maintain the exact same level of intensity throughout your workout. At times you can push a little harder and slow down at others. This is commonly referred to as interval training. It is beneficial to workout both at a constant rate as well as doing interval training. The fluctuation of your heart rate helps train it to recover faster and studies have shown a greater fat loss during interval training. Also, your mind is more active and the exercise isn’t as monotonous which helps to prevent boredom. If you can’t dedicate a full 30-40 minutes at one moment during the day, you can split that up into 10 and 20 minute segments throughout the day.
Get out there and do it!
Now you know the benefits of a stronger heart, you know how to strengthen your heart, there is just one more thing for you to do. Get out there and work it. Have fun doing it and you not only get the benefit of a healthier heart, you also get the benefits of the good feeling that you did when you were playing like when you were a kid!
Robert Crenshaw, NSCA-CPT is the Fitness Professional at Snap Fitness in Menomonee Falls. He enjoys working with people helping them take their bodies from an image they avoid in the mirror to one they can’t wait to capture on film. You can learn more about him on www.linkedin.com and www.snapfitness.com/menomoneefalls1. Contact Rob at robcrenshaw@hotmail.com or 262-783-7627
Robert B. Crenshaw, NSCA-CPT
Many people see the effects and understand the benefits of lifting weights to strengthen and build their skeletal muscles. The more you work a given muscle with proper nutrition, the bigger and/or denser that muscle gets, just look at any bodybuilder or fitness model. Also, the more you work a muscle or a set of muscles, the more calories you will burn causing a reduction in body fat percentage. Again, just look at bodybuilders or marathon runners for good examples. Although people tend to focus on the “mirror” muscles, or the muscles that you can physically see when you look in the mirror, many tend to overlook other muscles that you can’t see, but are much more important. Fortunately, most of these muscles are also improved when one works on the “mirror” muscles. These overlooked muscles include the diaphragm, the internal abdominals, and probably the most important one is the heart. So how do you target the heart to strengthen it and what are the benefits of doing so?
First, let’s get a direction in mind so we know where we are going. I am going to use and extreme example to describe the goals that we all should aim for in strengthening our hearts. Then I will get into the benefits of each of these areas. By focusing on something beyond where we want to get to, we will be sure to achieve our goals. Just like martial artist who demonstrate their skill by breaking a board by aiming for a spot behind the board, we will focus on levels beyond what we need for our fitness levels.
The extreme example is none other than the living cyclist legend, Lance Armstrong. Although he doesn’t hold the record in all the levels I will be describing, he probably has the strongest cardio system out there overall. Lance is the 5 time winner of the Tour de France. He has reigned over this grueling race for half a decade because of many factors. Most importantly for him, his lactate threshold is at a heart-rate of 178 beats per minute (bpm). This means that he can exercise at a level where his heart rate gets up to that point before lactic acid begins to enter the muscles which then causes fatigue. Most people don’t even workout on the treadmill at a heart-rate higher than 130-140. Combine this with the fact that his resting heart-rate is 32 to 34 bpm, almost half of the average person’s resting heart-rate and you can see why he can peddle at a much higher spin rate than most people without fatiguing. For a healthy heart, a lower resting heart-rate means a lower heart-rate when exercising at similar exertion levels compared to others. In other words, if I went jogging with Lance, his heart-rate would be much lower than mine even though we would be feeling the same amount of exertion. (Of course, my perceived exertion level may be higher than his.)
VO2max is the standard measure of aerobic fitness based on the body’s ability to take up oxygen. This is a measure of how the lungs can take oxygen out of the air we breathe in and put it into the blood stream and how the muscles then are able to take it out of the blood and utilize it for their needs. Lance’s level of 83.8 ml/kg/min is much higher than the average person whose levels measure in between 40-50 ml/kg/min. The average male endurance athlete usually has levels near 70 ml/kg/min. This is important, because the higher this number is, the fewer times the heart has to pump to get oxygenated blood to the muscles. If his blood had lower levels of oxygen, his heart would have to pump more often to get more blood to the muscles. Also, Lance’s heart is 30% larger than the average heart again allowing his heart to beat fewer times to push the needed blood through the body. This would be similar to someone with larger muscles being able to squeeze something harder than someone with smaller muscles.
Because of Lance’s training, he has strengthened his heart to accomplish all of this plus allow him to workout at a maximum heart rate of 201bpm. The average healthy 30 year old male should be very careful about working out at heart rates approaching 190bpm. An average healthy 50 year old male should only workout at a heart rate of 170 bpm under direct supervision of a physician.
Just like your skeletal muscles where you strengthen them by lifting heavier weights or pressing against bigger resistance, you have to strengthen your heart by exercising it against greater resistance. You wouldn’t start out trying to lift 500 lbs in the gym and you shouldn’t try to maximize your heart rate right from the start either. So let’s get into how you train to strengthen your heart.
The general belief is that you need to do cardio exercises such as running, cycling, or walking to work the heart. This is true, but it is not the only way to get your heart rate up.
When you increase the load on your muscles through resistance (weight training) or through increased frequency of use (running), the muscle requires more oxygen to perform its functions properly. It is the hearts responsibility to move the blood through the body to transport the oxygen from the lungs to the muscles and return the used oxygen (which has been combined with carbon to form carbon monoxide) back to the lungs to be expelled from the body. This is one way to increase the resistance against the heart. Another way is strictly through weight training. When you contract a muscle, it forces blood out of the muscle. The heart then has to push harder to get the blood back into that muscle after it relaxes. Jet pilots use this process to keep from blacking out in mid flight. They practice on contracting their neck muscles in such a way to keep blood in the head when they experience increased gravity forces. The harder and faster that you squeeze a muscle, the harder and faster your heart has to pump to get the blood back into the muscles.
This is very important in the strengthening of your heart. You need to increase how hard your heart has to work to have strength gains. If you did a bicep curl with just a bubble gum wrapper you wouldn’t see improvement in the strength or size of your bicep. The same concept implies to your heart. You aren’t going to strengthen your heart if you don’t require it to force more blood through your body. So when you work harder, either by running faster, peddling faster, or lifting heavier weights, more blood is returned to your heart causing more resistance for your heart to push it back through your body. This means that it is more important for you to work harder, or at a higher intensity, than it is for you to workout longer. The stronger your heart gets, the more blood it can pump with less effort. So how hard should you workout or at what intensity level? A fitness professional can help you determine what heart rate will be the best for you to target. But if you don’t have a heart rate monitor there is a simple way to determine how hard you should be working out. I will describe this when I talk about starting a workout program.
Benefits
The increase working capacity of the heart is just one of the benefits to strengthening your heart. Others include preventing heart disease (the leading cause of death in men and women) and stroke. The increased exercise will also cause the lowering of your blood pressure, the raising of your high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels (Healthy cholesterol) and the lowering of your low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels (Lazy cholesterol). Other benefits from exercising to strengthen your heart include the prevention or reduction of obesity, increase in mental health, and lower body fat percentages. The increase in blood flow will also bring more nutrients that the muscles need to at least maintain or grow allowing them to function better for better daily activity. It also helps in removing waste from your muscles, such as lactic acid that I described earlier when talking about Lance. Not only does this also improve the performance of your muscles, it reduces soreness after workouts.
Exercise
As I discussed earlier, both cardio workouts as well as weight training workouts help strengthen the heart. If you are new to weight training, start with machines and learn the proper way to set them up to avoid injury. Most gyms will have someone on staff to help you do this. Use a weight that is heavy enough to feel the resistance but light enough not to fatigue the muscle in 20 repetitions to start with. Once you get used to the movement, usually after a few times of trying it out, you can then increase the weight so that when you reach that twentieth repetition you feel that you couldn’t do one more. When this weight becomes easier add in another set until you are doing at least 3 sets of 18 reps. Whenever you feel that you can do 3 or 4 more after the last rep of the last set without resting, increase the weight the next time you workout. You will need to rest the muscles you worked for 48 hours so they can recover and repair themselves allowing them to grow stronger. You should notice that you are breathing heavier during and right after each set. This means that you are working the heart harder to get the blood back in those muscles. If you don’t experience heavier breathing, then try using more weight the next time.
When starting a cardio routine, your goal is to get at least 20 minutes at a higher intensity during your workout. At first, you may need to do light cardio for only 10 minutes. I have had clients who could only go for 5 minutes before needing a break. They soon were able to build that up 10, 15, and then up to 20 minutes. After you are used to 20 minutes, you can increase your time up to 45-60 minutes. There is no real need to go longer than 60 minutes unless you are training for a long run such as a 10K, 20K or marathon. Ideally, you should do 40 minutes of moderate to heavy intensity four days per week.
In order to workout at a moderate to heavy intensity, you need to know how it feels at those levels. Here are some basic guidelines to follow to determine how intense your workout is for you. Remember, your fitness level will determine how fast are hard you have to go to get to these levels. In other words, it will take a faster pace for Lance Armstrong to get to a moderate intensity than it will for the 65 year old obese person just starting out. If you feel weak or dizzy, slow down or stop, and of course, consult a physician if you have any health problems before you begin.
Intensity Levels Defined
Very low level of intensity - You are able to sing without difficulty.
Low level of intensity – You are able to talk without much difficulty.
Moderate level of intensity – You can talk with a little difficulty.
Heavy level of intensity – You can almost not talk at all.
Very high level of intensity – You can’t talk at all. This level is not recommended for beginners. You should only workout at this level after being on a program for a few months.
You do not need to maintain the exact same level of intensity throughout your workout. At times you can push a little harder and slow down at others. This is commonly referred to as interval training. It is beneficial to workout both at a constant rate as well as doing interval training. The fluctuation of your heart rate helps train it to recover faster and studies have shown a greater fat loss during interval training. Also, your mind is more active and the exercise isn’t as monotonous which helps to prevent boredom. If you can’t dedicate a full 30-40 minutes at one moment during the day, you can split that up into 10 and 20 minute segments throughout the day.
Get out there and do it!
Now you know the benefits of a stronger heart, you know how to strengthen your heart, there is just one more thing for you to do. Get out there and work it. Have fun doing it and you not only get the benefit of a healthier heart, you also get the benefits of the good feeling that you did when you were playing like when you were a kid!
Robert Crenshaw, NSCA-CPT is the Fitness Professional at Snap Fitness in Menomonee Falls. He enjoys working with people helping them take their bodies from an image they avoid in the mirror to one they can’t wait to capture on film. You can learn more about him on www.linkedin.com and www.snapfitness.com/menomoneefalls1. Contact Rob at robcrenshaw@hotmail.com or 262-783-7627
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Intro to The Fitness Buff
Confused about all the fitness trends and new gizmo's that are out there? Submit a question to The Fitness Buff and he will smooth out any rough edges and clear things up for you. The Fitness Buff takes people from an image they can't stand to see in the mirror to one that they can't wait to capture on film!
There are many tools The Fitness Buff uses to smooth your rough edges into the smooth look that you are dreaming to achieve. If you have been on yo-yo diets, tried all the fitness fads, or you're just plain new to this whole "workout" thing, then Rob has what it takes to get you where you want to go through fun and innovative workouts and resources.
There are many tools The Fitness Buff uses to smooth your rough edges into the smooth look that you are dreaming to achieve. If you have been on yo-yo diets, tried all the fitness fads, or you're just plain new to this whole "workout" thing, then Rob has what it takes to get you where you want to go through fun and innovative workouts and resources.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
