myfitnesshut

It’s that time of year again! You know what I’m talking about! The holiday season and all that it brings—including the GOOD FOOD! You don’t have to make yourself miserable because you are afraid to eat the delicious dinners, snacks and desserts. Here are some tips to help you navigate through the holiday food minefield:

1) Don’t stop or slack off on your exercise program during the holiday season! And, if you aren’t exercising, then this would be a great time to start (don’t wait until January). I have a goal of at least trying to maintain my pre-holiday weight during the holiday season. This is not easy because every holiday gathering that I go to has food attached to it! Yikes!!

2) Go easy on the condiments. The holidays are famous for people coming up with special “sauces, dips and toppings for the season.” Don’t splurge on these sauces—just sample.

3) Now that Thanksgiving is over, go back to your normal diet. Don’t make Thanksgiving through January 1 one long eating binge!

4) This rule always applies to any season—if its fried, let it slide!

5) Alcohol has calories too—7 calories per gram to be exact. Don’t tank it too much!

6) You don’t have to eat until you are stuffed. If you are like me, you pile too many goodies on your plate. You don’t have to finish it.

7) Don’t spend all of your time eating at the holiday parties. Work the room and talk a little.

Snack on some walnuts or almonds before you go to the party. They are good for you and you won’t arrive at the party starving.

9) Drink lots of water at the party and you will eat less.

10) Allow yourself one dessert (or a sample of a few) during the party. It’s okay since you are going to exercise tomorrow—-right?

‘Tis the season to be jolly and eat good, good food—-and exercise!

The transverse abdominis is the deepest of the abdominal muscles and it lies under the obliques and wraps around your spine for protection and stability.  Think of the transverse abdominis as “your internal weight belt.”  It is recruited when you draw in your navel toward your spine during an exercise.

For example, when you are doing squats, lunges or standing shoulder presses, draw in your navel toward your spine and contract your glutes.  You really don’t need a weight belt unless you are rehabilitating from an injury.   Learn to stabilize your own body.

I’m not here to bash commercial weight loss programs. I just want you to make an informed decision (and cost effective) when it comes to your health and fitness. Physicians and other health professionals agree that the key to long-term health is proper nutrition and exercise. You need to know the difference between commercial weight loss programs and education-based programs set up by health and fitness professionals. Here are just a few:

As you can see, there are far more advantages to an education-based health and fitness program when you are trying to acheive your weight-management and lifestyle goals. Why? Because fitness programs adheres to basic human physiology and behavior. If you want to learn more, just call, email me or view my weight management videos on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/markheagle You can then make an informed decision about your health and fitness.

A few preliminary studies have found that regular exercise can ease some of the pain and stress that you may have each month during the week or two leading up to your period. In one trial, researchers at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver had eight previously sedentary women work up to running 12 miles per week over six months. At the end of the study, the runners reported less breast tenderness, bloating, and moodiness before their periods. Six normally active women who did not increase their level of exercise felt no changes in their usual premenstrual symptoms.

Another study found that women who exercised regularly felt less pain and depression before their periods than nonexercisers. Unfortunately, no studies have looked at how exercise might help women with severe premenstrual syndrome, a clinical disorder in which women find themselves plagued each month by pain, headache, cramps, depression, and fatigue, among other symptoms.

Have you started an exercise program but are unsure whether it is working effectively?  If your exercise goals are “LEAN and TONE” with improved cardiovascular health, then there are some “markers” to look for during your training. 

Cardio Training

If you started training using a 65%-75% target heart rate zone during your daily 30 minute cardio session, then that is a good start.  That is a good fat-burning zone.  If this training zone becomes too easy after a few weeks (if you can hold a conversation during the session, it is too easy), then you probably need to increase the training zone to 75%-85%.  And, as you might have guessed, even this training zone will need to be changed after a few weeks.  For many, interval training is the answer.  Interval training has a high intensity/lower intensity pattern.  An example would be a pattern of 2 minutes at 85% and 1 minute at 75%.   You would do this pattern for 30 minutes.  Interval training has been proven to provide maximum cardio and fat-burning benefits.  You could also vary your modes of training such as using the treadmill, illyptical, bike, stair-stepper, etc.  The point is this:  change it up (modes and intensity) every 2-4 weeks to prevent your body from adapting to your training methods.  So, how can you tell if your fitness level is improving?  Take your pulse before and after your workout.  Within 5 minutes of your completed workout, your heart rate should return to its pre-workout heart rate.  If it takes longer than 5 minutes, you might need to scale back your workout. 

Strength Training

A good resistance workout for maximum fat-burning, muscle strength/endurance, cardiorespiratory health and bone density benefits is a full-body circuit weight training session.  It will definitely help to change your body composition.  It basically works this way:  perform each exercise 12-15 repetitions with no rest between exercises.  Choose a weight (free or dumbbell) that you can handle for 12-15 repetitions.   After the last exercise, rest for 2 minutes and repeat the same circuit.  Total workout time should be 30-60 minutes.   You should do this workout  at least 3 days a week on nonconsecutive days.  Do this circuit workout for at least 4 weeks.  You may need to increase the weight as you progress.   Examples of exercises for a full body circuit training session would be:   squats, bench press, walking lunges, bent over rows, shoulder press, biceps curl, low back extensions, tricep dips, step-ups, stability ball crunches, reverse crunches, bridges, planks and lateral lunges.   After 4 weeks of circuit training, you could change your strength workout program to prevent your body from adapting to your workouts.   So, how do you know if your strength training program is working for you?  If your fitness goal is LEAN and TONE, you will lose inches from your waist, hips, neck, arms, legs, etc.  and your body fat will decrease.  You should take these measurements at least every 4 weeks to measure your progress.  Don’t worry about the weight scale at first.  Since muscle weighs more than fat, your weight might even go up a little at first.  But you will be on your way to acheiving PERMANENT WEIGHT LOSS because your lean muscle mass will gradually replace your burned fat mass.   And this will permanently speed up your metabolism.   

What If Weight Training Is Painful?

Don’t believe the “NO PAIN, NO GAIN” myth!  If it hurts (as in sharp pain), then that exercise is not good for you.  The reasons could be that you have an injury or you are doing the exercise incorrectly.   Here are some examples: 

• When performing the bench press exercise, you should feel the effects in your front shoulders, triceps and chest.  If you feel pain in the back of your shoulders (rotator cuffs), then stop this exercise.
• You should feel the effects of the squat primarily in your glutes, quads and hamstrings.  If you feel pain in your lower back or knees, then stop.
• Leg curls should work your hamstrings.  Pain in the back of the knees should be a signal for you to stop this exercise.

You could be making excellent progress towards your exercise goals and not even know it!  Use of these “markers” and other tools will help you monitor your progress. 

Burning more calories every day will help you reach your fitness goals sooner. Body composition is the key to physical fitness. Stated another way, how much lean muscle mass does your body have in relation to fat mass. One major fitness goal should always be to decrease fat mass to an acceptable level. Building muscle while simultaneously reducing body fat will insure long-term fitness success. Building muscle mass will also speed up your metabolism and burn more daily calories.So, how many daily calories are burned by one pound of muscle? And the answer is—35 to 50 calories! Its great to lose weight but you need to do it the right way. If you lose major poundage without strength training, most of your weight loss will be muscle mass. That is why you see some people who are “skinny-fat” (skinny with high body fat). The goal should be to have a lean and toned body. Therefore, you need to strength train 2-3 times per week.

Here is an example of losing weight the right way:

This person weighed 210 pounds, with 30% body fat
(lean mass = 147 lbs. and fat mass = 63 lbs.)

Exercise program results:

Weight: 195 pounds, 25% body fat
(lean mass = 146 lbs. and fat mass = 49 lbs.)

This person’s exercise program was very successful! He lost 15 total pounds with only 1 lost pound of muscle. That means the other 14 pounds lost was fat! He was able to do this because he combined good nutrition with strength training and cardio exercise. Now, muscle up and lose fat weight!