February 22nd, 2009 -- Posted in Personal Training |
Well I know that we have talked a lot about cardio for getting started but now it is time to look a bit at your nutrition. Here is your “assignment”. I want you to keep a food diary. No, don’t change anything yet. Just write down for one week every single thing that you put in your mouth.
And I mean everything. Gum, drinks, coffee, meals, snacks, those few jelly beans you grabbed from a co-worker’s candy bowl — EVERYTHING.
A food diary helps us get honest about what we put in our mouths and it is the only place to start for you to get your diet under control. And YES, healthy eating is critical for fitness. It keeps your energy up and fuels your body properly. You can work out a ton but if you put garbage in your body — well you know the old saying about garbage in, garbage out.
So that is it — simple — keep a food diary.
December 27th, 2008 -- Posted in Personal Training |
Pregnancy takes it toll on your body and it will take a while to get it back. Celebrities make it look so easy to get your body back so don’t use them as an example!!
You can get yourself back in shape with a four-pronged approach and you can start as soon as your doctor gives you the all clear. For some women, this is very soon after birth. For others it can be a month or even 2 – so be sure to discuss it with your doctor.
Here is the FOUR PRONGED APPROACH
1 – CARDIO – A cardio plan you can stick with as a busy mom. For a lot of moms this can be taking the baby on a walk every day. For others, time on the treadmill during baby’s nap or when you have help may be more realistic.
2 – STRENGTH TRAINING – You need to get back to lifting heavy weights to build muscle. This will help you burn more calories and strengthen your body. It will also help your bone density which pregnancy could have had a negative impact on.
3 – HEALTHY EATING – You ate well for the baby; now it is time to eat well for you!!
4 – AB WORK – All new moms need a personalized ab workout to help pull their abs back. Crunches are not enough and many new moms need exercises that target deeper muscles so be sure to discuss with your doctor and a personal trainer with certifications specific to the needs of pregnancy.
December 11th, 2008 -- Posted in Personal Training |
Do you want to know how to play the best golf you can? This is a line that is used for every gadget, book, magazine and club that comes onto the market. Some of these are great products and do help your game (my wife swears she can putt blindfolded with the new VJ putter and have it go in). However, the true “Magic Key” lies within you.
Einstein once said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. This is also true of your golf game. Are you practicing the same bad swing over and over again? KNOCK IT OFF AND TRY SOMETHING ELSE! Get a body assessment from a personal trainer to see if you have weak or tight muscles that are impairing your performance (and setting you up for injury). Get a swing assessment from your friendly neighborhood golf pro (that is why he is there). Most of all, when these professionals give you advice for how to improve, take it and do it. Once you fix the problem (poor alignment, bad swing, bad grip, etc) and you practice the correct way (proper swing with no muscle impairment), you will be making forward progress.
Once you have the correct ingredients, it will be just like Einstein’s experiment. A new result will come from doing something new and different. (And a great putter never hurts either!)
November 21st, 2008 -- Posted in Personal Training |
In a recent study at Auburn University, several different workout programs and weight loss programs were compared. The winner? A combination of cardio and strength training. The participants had an average increase to their base metabolic rate of 61 percent. That is nothing short of amazing. It is critical to add strength training to your routine if this is not something that you already do. If you are already strength training and not getting your desired results, you may need to have a serious look at your workout to determine why it is not working.
Strength training workouts must be “changed-up” on a regular basis. You cannot do the same workout day in and day out and expect to see progressive results. There are several different ways to progress. One of the most effective is to add movements that challenge your balance and core strength. These moves also make the original move more challenging. An example of this is adding the ball to your workout. Overhead tricep presses change completely when done on the unstable surface of the ball.
Another way to progress is to make like a flamingo. Performing exercises on one leg adds to the challenge because of the added weight and the instability. Check out one-legged marble squats if you don’t believe me. If you are a beginner, you need to be careful that these new moves do not challenge your form. Proper form is critical to injury prevention.
And a simple no-brainer way to change the load for everyone, STAND UP! Most exercises that you normally perform while sitting on a bench give your body more of a challenge if you perform them while standing. Think of exercises like bicep curls. There are also many other ways to challenge (and breathe life) into a stale routine. Just ask and I would be happy to give you some pointers.
