Your Fitness

If you are busy, not able to get up early morning or have no time for gym just follow this 20 minute home work out to stay healthy and fit.

1) Jog in place for 3 minutes

2) Do 25 Jumping Jacks
When landing, bend your knees slightly to reduce the wear and tear on your knees.

3) Do 15 Crunches
Lie flat on your back with your knees bent. Place your hands behind your head with elbows pointing outwards. Support your neck with your hands. Keep your neck in a straight line with your spine. Flex your waist to raise the upper torso from the mat. Lower yourself until the back of your shoulders touches the mat.

4) Do 10 Hip Bridges
Lie on your back. With your hands at a 90 degree angle to the floor, lift your body off the floor to form a straight line, a sort of a bridge, from the shoulders to the knee. The position should resemble a table … your hands and legs as the legs of the table and your upper body to your knees as the surface. Hold this position for two seconds. Squeeze your gluteus (butt muscles) and then lower yourself.

5) Perform step ups for 1 minute
You will need a stepper for this.

6) Do 15 Reverse crunches
Lie on your back with your hands on your sides. Keep you knees bent. Bring your knees towards your head, till your hips come slightly off the floor. Hold this position for a second, and then lower your knees.

7) Do mountain climbers for 1 minute
This is one of my favorite exercises.  Get your hands and knees and raise your knees like a starting block sprinter. Run in that position, supporting your upper body with the palms of your hands. Keep your back straight.

Do 15 Push-ups

9) Perform squat thrusts for 1 minute.
Stand straight. Now, drop to a crouch position. Immediately thrust your legs out straight behind on your toes, in push up position, now jump to pull legs  back to the chest, in crouching position , then  stand up straight,

Cool down by walking around, till your heart rate starts getting back to normal, stretch.

A minutes rest is needed in between exercise. Proper form is important. Do not hold breath. Sip water during the workout. This workout targets the whole body, improves cardiovascular efficiency and tones and strengthens the body.  You can repeat the cycle if you have time.

What is the minimum amount of exercise needed for health and fitness? Although it depends on the person, lifestyle, and goals, the wisdom is that 20-60 minutes per day of cardio, weight lifting, or muscle stretching is necessary.

While no one can deny that these numbers produce optimal results, it is possible to achieve great things in less time.

The truth is that most terribly out of shape individuals have lost crucial “body-mind” link, a connection that helps them to feel the hunger for natural health movement. They hate sweating, do not like to walk, and often confuse thirst or emotional pain with actual hunger.

For those of us who have to pave the way for a new exercise routine, even five minutes a day can be a door to save lives in a healthier world.

Here are the rules:

1) To get the most out of this routine, which should extend throughout the day.   I recommend sixty seconds of work at 9 am, 12 pm, 3 pm, 6 pm and 9 pm. This approach is called “Grease the Groove” and has an unusually powerful effect.

2) Focus on the abdominal muscles. They are the largest group of voluntary muscles of the body. They help posture, digestion and sexual function. They are critical to athletic performance, the energy transfer from the bottom of the upper body. When it comes to appearance, the abdominals are called “the window of health”-that is judged most often by our belt lines than any other physical factor.

3) It is virtually impossible to to tone up the stomach muscles without benefiting the other muscle groups throughout the body.

What exercises are best? I would suggest a three-pronged approach: a difficult exercise, a light exercise, and one that can be done in public while walking or driving.

1) A roller wheel. These are available at any sporting goods store about five U.S. dollars and are the only ab exercise develop their money worth. Start rolling from your knees.  In time you will be able to perform the exercise from a standing position.

2) Hip lifts. Lie on your back, brace your hands at your sides, cross your feet and lift your knees and feet off of the ground. Now contract the abdominal muscles and lift the hips from the floor. Relax and repeat the hip lift for sixty seconds.

3) Power breathing. Contract your stomach muscles hard while walking or driving. Combined with proper breathing techniques, this may be the perfect ab exercise. There are many yoga, Tai Chi, and martial arts teachers who can teach you the correct technique of breathing, if you have not had this training then I would suggest you find a teacher!

While the “Grease the Groove” technique is powerful (and can be used to develop strength, flexibility, or coordination) is not a substitute for your normal cardiovascular workouts. Is offered as a complement to your normal exercise session or for those days you just can not find the time to get to the gym.  It will hopefully provide you with yet another avenue to lead you to greater fitness.

One of the ongoing debates in the fitness world today is which burns more calories: cardio or weight training?

You will find those on both sides of the argument offering data to support their position. As much as I would like to say that you can dispense with one or the other the truth of the matter is that you need both of them. I know, that is not what you wanted to hear but let’s be honest deep down inside you knew this was the case.

Trust me there is nothing that I would love more than to never have to due another minute of cardio training for the rest of my life. I despise treadmills, ellipticals and the like. However, I faithfully do them everyday that I go to the health club.

I know that there are other people who probably fell the same way about weight lifting. Much of it has to do with (in my humble opinion) the type of muscle fibers our bodies are composed of. My theory is that the more fast twitch muscle fiber you have the more you enjoy weight lifting. The more slow twitch muscle fiber you have the more you enjoy cardio. In other words, it boils down to personal preference since one form of exercise is easier for us since our bodies are better equipped to handle one or the other.

But the truth of the matter is that we need both. Cardio is essential for burning calories. I have tried to burn calories thru weight training programs but ultimately I fail to keep up the pace of the workout. If I workout at a pace that keeps my heart rate where I want it I do not have enough rest in between sets and my weight lifting performance and progress falters. If I give myself the rest in between sets that I require then my heart rate is too low to burn calories as I should.

Therefore, cardio becomes a necessity for me in order to burn the calories that I need to throughout the day.

Conversely, weight training is essential as well since the more muscle that you have the more calories that your body will burn in order to maintain this muscle. It takes more energy for you body to maintain muscle than it does to maintain the same weight in fat. The more muscle you have the higher your metabolism will be as well. This will benefit you in your overall weight loss and fitness program.

When you combine the two forms of exercise you have a powerful duo that provides you will a tremendous level of fitness and keeps your body weight exactly where you want. So do yourself a favor and spend time each week performing both cardio and weight training. You will be better off for it.

 We put a lot of thought and effort into our three main meals of the day but we rarely give much thought to maybe what is the second most important meal of the day:  your post workout meal.

If you have just finished an exhausting workout, you have depleted your body of  glycogen, amino acids, nutrients and oxygen.  You body is in a state of what is called catabolism.  In this state you body is breaking down muscle and tissue.  You need to reverse this.  You want to put yourself in a state of muscle and tissue repair.  And you need to do this rather quickly, within the 30 - 45 minutes.  You must give you body what it is craving.

So what is the best thing that you can give to your body at this point?  I would start with carbohydrates, not complex carbohydrates but rather simple ones.  You wants foods that can be quickly digested so that your glycogen levels with begin to restore to their previous levels.  Something like Gatorade (or another sport drink) will do the trick or you can eat a piece of fruit.

But carbohydrates are not the only thing your body is needing.  You muscles have been beaten and damaged and need some protein to help build them back up.   Again you want a food that will be quickly digested.  So I would suggest that you use a Whey Protein supplement.  Whey protein is easier to digest than other protein types.  If you don’t want to spend the money on protein supplements then I would suggest a few glasses of chocolate milk.  Milk is always a great protein source.

Strive for a ratio of 2 grams of carbohydrates for every 1 gram of protein.  You can adjust the size of what you eat according to your particular calorie intake.

By the way, stay away from fat in this meal.  Although you need fat in your diet you don’t need it in you post workout meal. Fat will slow the rate at which the nutrients get into your system.

So make sure you spend some time thinking out your post workout meal.  It is essential to your progress in achieving your goal of overall fitness.

 So you want to burn fat?  Join the club.   With obesity levels in the U.S. pushing nearly 1 in 3 people it is on the mind of just about everyone.   If you want to get serious about your fitness and burning off the unwanted fat then you need to look into what is called High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT).

HIIT is short periods (intervals) of intense exercise followed by a resting period where less intense exercise is performed.  The question you may be asking is why is High Intensity Interval Training supposed to be so effective?  What makes it better than steady state cardio workouts?

You are probably familiar with steady state cardio.  That means hopping on the treadmill and jogging for about 30 minutes or so.  You try to get your heart rate into the fat burning zone and hopefully the fat will melt away.  When you get your heart rate into the fat burning zone (about 65 - 75% of your max heart rate) you will be burning fat at a good clip.  You will be getting most of your energy from your fat.  This is good.  You definitely will burn fat and lose weight by doing steady state cardio.  However, there is also a downside.

Outside of being boring, you will only burn calories while doing the exercise itself and maybe for another hour or so after that.  Maybe that doesn’t sound so bad but you will see in a moment that it is definitely not preferrable.

Your body will also adapt to your workouts at some point making them much less effective (that means you won’t burn much fat).  The other problem is that if you perform steady state cardio for too long you lose muscle mass.  Think about it; have you ever seen a muscular marathon runner?  There is a reason for that.  After about 35-40 minutes of  steady state cardio you begin to release a hormone called cortisol.  Unfortunately, cortisol will break down the protein in your body for energy instead of fat.   Less protein means less muscle.  Not enough protein means muscle loss.

So what does HIIT offer that steady state cardio doesn’t?  Research has shown that interval training will increase your ability to burn calories at an elevated rate for up to 48 hours after you workout.  This is a result of Excess Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC).  You can click the link to learn more about why it works that way rather than go into a big discussion about it here.

One of the other positive side effects of High Intensity Interval Training is that it causes your body to release testosterone and human growth hormone.  Both of these are essential in building muscle and helping you to lose fat.  HIIT by its very nature cannot be done for long periods of time therefore cortisol never gets released.  A typical HIIT workout will only last about 20 - 25 minutes.

The other positive part about HIIT is that you body never quite adapts to it.  You can vary the interval times of intesity and rest and keep your body off balance.

So if you are at a fat loss plateau or need to ramp up your fat loss efforts then take a look at High Intensity Interval Training.

 Should you use a training partner?  I think the obvious answer to that question is yes but with a major condition on the “yes.”  Your training partner must be dedicated to your fitness success.  If you get stuck with a bad training partner then your progress will be severely limited.  With that in mind here are a few things that you can look for in a training partner.

1.  They must near your fitness level.  No matter what you are doing whether it is cardio or whether it is strength training they must be close to your level of fitness.  If you are going for a 5 mile run and they can only do 1 mile before collapsing to the ground they will not make for a good training partner.  If your strength levels are much different you will lose too much time between sets switching weights back and forth rather than keeping a good pace to your workout.

2.  Find someone who is passionate about working out.  If you are ready to go everyday and excited to see what you can accomplish each day but you pair yourself up with someone who is constantly dragging through the workout and is wishing he/she was somewhere else it is going to effect you. Find a training partner who matches your passion for fitness.

3.  Stay away from chatty training partners.  Remember you are there to get work done.  You can talk when your workout is over.  I am not saying that you can’t speak at all but I have seen training partners that have a love for telling stories and the other person feels sort of obligated to listen rather than train.   Talk all you want but when it is time to do your next exercise or set you want a training partner that will shut up and let you work.

4.  You only need one training partner.  Anything more than one training partner is counterproductive is you are in the weight room.  If you are just getting together for a run or to do some interval training then it is OK to have more than one.  However, in a weight room having more than one training partner will slow down your workout too much.

5.  Make sure you pick a training partner who values their time.  Their is nothing worse than agreeing that you will meet at the gym at 7 PM only to have them drag themselves in to the gym at 7:30 PM.  Make sure you find a partner who is punctual and who respects your time.

6.  Make sure you pick a training partner with whom you don’t have a personality conflict.  Some people are nice but too much of them can wear on you.  I take the train in to work with a guy who is quite nice and personable, however, I could never workout with him.  He is constantly talking about his injuries and an incessant complainer.  I can take this for the few minutes that I see him on the train but if I had to put up with it for an entire workout I would sooner or later look for an excuse not to go.  Find a training partner that you enjoy and who will motivate you to show up.

These are just a few of the things that you want to look for in a training partner.  When you pick one right it can be a big plus to your workouts.  A good training partner can provide motivation, friendship,  and , of course,  safety (spotting).  So pick your partner wisely.

Everyone should be doing weight training but I find that so many people are avoiding it.  I hear a
tremendous number of misguided excuses for not doing so.

Here are a few of them.

Weight training is too difficult on my joints.

If you are doing weight training correctly it should not be difficult on your joints.  In fact lifting weights will help strengthen your joints.  If when you are beginning you have some still joints then lower the amount of weight that you are lifting.  Don’t quit altogether.

I don’t want to get bulked up or muscle bound.  

This is often a concern of women.  Trust me you will not get bulked up unless you want to and even if you want to it is difficult to achieve.  What weight lifting will add is tone and muscularity.  You will not develop rippling biceps, big chest, big legs and shoulders overnight.  Many who have been trying to achieve this and have worked very hard to do so still can’t reach their goals.  Most women do not even have the genetics to get large muscles no matter how hard they try.

I have heard that muscle turns to fat if you stop lifting weights.

Whoever told you this lie needs to go back and repeat their high school biology class.  Muscle tissue cannot convert to fat cells.  It is biologically impossible.  Muscle will merely atrophy (get smaller) without use.  It cannot become fat.  What can happen however, is that the less muscle you have the fatter you can become.  You will burn more calories to maintain muscle.  Therefore the less muscle you have the fewer calories that you will burn.

I am too old to lift weights.

This is another falsehood.  You can benefit from lifting weights at any age and research has shown the
ability to increase muscle mass and strength no matter what the age.

Weight lifting takes too long.  

If you do it correctly your weight lifting session should not last any more that 20 - 25 minutes.  That is, unless you are walking around talking too much or taking long breaks in between sets.  If this is happening then you need to change how you workout.  Exercise first, socialize later.

Let’s look at some of the benefits of weight lifting.

You will build muscle strength.  

Not only will you build muscle strength but you will also build tendon and ligament strength.  This is
beneficial to your joints and will help prevent injury to these joints in the future.  And of course
we all would like to be a little stronger.

You will improve your appearance.

A toned, muscular body looks better than one that has no tone.  You will have more confidence to wear the
swimwear of your choice and will in general feel better about yourself.  Just don’t let others catch you
standing in front of a mirror and admiring yourself.

You will burn fat faster.

Weight lifting will fire up your metabolism.  As I mentioned earlier it requires more energy to maintain
muscle.  This means that the more muscle you have the more calories you will burn on an everyday basis.  The mere presence of muscle will do battle with your fat.

I could go on but I think you get the picture.  Everyone needs to be lifting weights.  So what are you
waiting for.  Get off the computer and head to the gym!

A few years ago I first heard about Crossfit.   I ran across their website during a lunch hour at work and immediately was taken in by what they had to say.

CrossFit has gone on to become the preferable strength and conditioning program for military special ops groups (Navy Seals, Army Rangers, etc), as well as, police and fire departments, marital artists, MMA fighters, professional athletes and people just like you and me.

The CrossFit program is scalable so no matter what your level of fitness you can begin doing CrossFit workouts.  If you are an elderly individual or a supremely conditioned MMA fighter you can benefit from a CrossFit workout.

What I fell in love with was that they had a different opinion of what real fitness was all about. Most of us have imbalanced views of what fitness is. If you have a running background, you might think that being fit means you have the ability to run 10 miles at a 5 - 6 minute pace for each mile.

If you are a weightlifter you might believe that being fit means that you can bench press in excess of 400 pounds, squat nearly 600 pounds and deadlift about 500 pounds.

If you are a bodybuilder you might believe that being fit is easy to determine. If you have large muscles and rippling abs, then you have arrived.

The point is that we have a tendency to define fitness by the standard defined by the fitness area that we gravitate towards the most. Although, all of the above things are positive and beneficial they don’t necessarily define fitness. What good is it if you can run 10 miles but struggle carrying two gallons of milk in from the store?

It is nice to be able to lift heavy weights but if you are tired after walking a couple of flights of stairs then I would venture to say that your overall fitness level is not too great.

Crossfit looked at this problem and developed a workout protocol that attempts to build proficiency in all areas of fitness. They focus on endurance, strength, and flexibility. They incorporate running, body weight exercise, olympic lifts, kettlebell training, medicine ball training, etc.

The nice thing about CrossFit is that they post WOD (workouts of the day) each day at their site.  These workouts are designed to prevent your body from adapting to your exercise routine and to provide you with the avenue to increase in strength, endurance, flexibility and even confidence.

If you haven’t checked them out swing by their website and give it a once over.  You will be glad you did.

I have become a real fan of Body Weight Exercise over the last couple of years.  It is probably as a result of a variety of factors.  The first is that I came across an alternate definition of fitness from  Crossfit workouts.  Crossfit is not exclusively a body weight exercise protocol but they incorporate many body weight exercises in their workouts. They include a number of Olympic lifts, running, gymnastics, and kettlebells as well.  I will do a post of Crossfit shortly for those of you who are not familiar with them.

The second thing that influenced me was a program called Turbulence Training by Craig Ballantyne. Craig has been a contributing author for Men’s Health for years and developed Turbulence Training. I began performing a few of his workouts without much in the way of expectation and was pleasantly surprised at the workout that it gave me.  It worked my muscles to a great level and elevated my heart rate.

I hate running. I understand that value that it may have in the overall scheme of your fitness but if I could find a replacement for it and still accomplish the same level of fat burning I would never run again.  As I have gotten older now (44) my joints like running even less than I do. So body weight exercises were a heaven sent gift.  A 20 - 30 minute body weight exercise routine builds muscle and burns fat at the same time.  This is quite the powerful combo.

In the future I will post some body weight exercise routines.  You will find these quite challenging and difficult.  You will be amazed at the results and thrilled at the amount of fat that is being burned.  So stay tuned as we explore the benefits of body weight exercise for your fitness.

 One of the things that you need to become familiar with as you start your journey toward fitness is Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). What is basal metabolic rate? Well to put it simply, basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the calories that you burn each day by existing.

You should know what you BMR is so that you can be aware of what is an appropriate intake of food and how many extra calories you will need to burn to reach a weight goal or merely to maintain your weight where it is at.  So let’s give a quick overview of BMR.

BMR is different for each individual. Your body burns calories all day long even if you don’t think it is happening after you step on the scale. You burn calories when you body tries to maintain the muscle it has;  you burn calories when your body maintains your body temperature and you burn calories when your body performs basic daily functions such as pumping blood, breathing, etc.

Your basal metabolic rate is determined by many different factors. Here are a few:

Gender - Males have a higher BMR that women (sorry ladies). This is basically because men have a higher percentage of muscle mass and in general they weigh more.

Age - Yes, I am sure that it is no surprise to you that your BMR declines with age (I know that some of us feel as if our BMR has fallen off of a cliff).   All you need to do is look at your belly or thighs to know this is the case.

Weight - The more you weigh the higher your BMR.  In essence, the more weight you are lugging around the more calories you will burn doing it.

Muscle - The more muscle you have the higher your BMR. It takes more calories to maintain a pound of muscle than it does to maintain a pound of fat.

Genetics - Some people are just blessed. I work next to a guy who can’t gain weight if he tries and he is 50. This is not my problem.  Many would love to have this problem. Some have higher metabolisms than others and will burn calories at a faster rate.

Diet - This is one of the biggest mistakes that people make when trying to lose weight. If you starve yourself or otherwise deprive your body of calories you will cause your basal metabolic rate to drop. Sometimes you can cause it to drop by as much as 10% - 20%. Starvation is not a way to lose weight.

Body Temperature - If you have a fever you will burn more calories than you would if you body temperature is normal. This is one of the reasons that you may lose weight when sick (even though you don’t get out of bed).  You may also lose weight due to other reasons as well that are not to comfortable.

Activity Level - The more you exercise the higher your BMR.  Not only do you burn calories from the exercise but you also raise your BMR causing you to burn more calories even while at rest.

How to Calculate Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)

In order to calculate your BMR you need to figure out how many calories you burn during the day. This would include your maintenance level (calories burned by laying in bed) and your activity level. The more active you are the more you would add to your maintenance level.

The maintenance level for the average woman would be between 1800 and 2100 calories and for the average man it would be between 2500 and 2800. Some individuals due to their activity level require much more. If you remember that during the Olympics a report came out that Michael Phelps needed to consume about 10,000 calories a day just not to lose weight.

Here is a basic equation for calculating your BMR.

Women:
655 + (4.3 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)

Men:
66 + (6.3 x weight in pounds) + (12.9 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years)

I am a 44 year old man who is 5′ 9″ and 180 pounds. So my calculation would be as follows:

66 + (6.3 x 180) + (12.9 x 69) - (6.8 x 44) = 1791

This gets just your resting BMR. Now you have to calculate your activity level. To do this you can use the following rule of thumb.

If you are sedentary : BMR x 20 percent

If you are lightly active: BMR x 30 percent

If you are moderately active (You exercise most days a week.): BMR x 40 percent

If you are very active (You exercise intensely on a daily basis or for prolonged periods.): BMR x 50 percent

I am moderately active so I would take 1791 and multiply it by 1.4 to get my BMR. So each day I burn on average a little more than 2500 calories. If I wanted to lose weight I would have to figure out how to keep my caloric intake underneath of that level.

I hope this was helpful to you. If you don’t want to take the time to calculate your own BMR you can find calculators all over the internet.