Bring It Home

Jeff Angel

exercise

Are You Getting Enough Exercise?

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The American Heart Association suggests at least 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise or 75 minutes per week of vigorous exercise (or a combination of moderate and vigorous physical activity). Thirty minutes a day, five times a week is an easy goal to remember, however you will also experience benefits even if you divide your time into two or three segments of 10 -15 minutes per day.

Physical activity is anything that makes you move your body and burn calories, such as climbing stairs or playing sports. Aerobic exercises benefit your heart, such as walking, jogging, swimming or biking. Strength and stretching exercises are best for overall stamina and flexibility.

The simplest, positive change you can make to effectively improve your heart health is to start walking. It’s enjoyable, free, easy, social and great exercise. A walking program is flexible and boasts high success rates because people can stick with it. It’s easy for walking to become a regular and satisfying part of life.

The following chart represents an estimate of caloric expenditure during specific physical activity. Listed are 4 different weight categories. Caloric expenditure is influenced by intensity, mode of exercise, one’s level of conditioning, metabolism, and body weight. Try to do at least three of these activities during your training week. This might help to keep you from getting bored with your weekly schedule and will help to make you a more well-rounded fitness enthuseist. You might even find a new mode of exercise to enjoy. My top two exercises are jump rope and fast-paced calisthenics. My new favorite that’s been around for years… the rowing machine.

caloric-expenditure

Motivation Keeps You Moving

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Starting a fitness program is a difficult task for people. Staying on track can be even more challenging. Have you ever started a fitness program and then quit? If you answered yes, you’re not alone. Many people start fitness programs but stop when they get bored or results come too slowly. Here are some tips to help you stay motivated.

1. Set goals

Start with simple short term goals and then progress to longer range goals. Be sure to set goals that are realistic and achievable. It’s easy to get frustrated and give up if your goals are too ambitious.

For example, if you haven’t exercised in a while, a short-term goal might be to walk 10 minutes a day three days a week. An intermediate goal might be to walk 30 minutes five days a week. A long-term goal might be to complete a 5K walk.

2. Make your training fun

Participate in sports or activities that you enjoy, then vary your routine from day to day. If you’re not enjoying your workouts, try something different. Join a volleyball or softball league. Take a dance aerobics class. Join a health club or martial arts center. Exercise does not have to be boring. You’re more likely to continue with a fitness program if you’re having fun.

3. Mix physical activity into your daily routine

If it’s hard to find time for exercise, don’t fall back on excuses. Schedule workouts as you would any other important activity. You can also slip in physical activity throughout the day. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Walk up and down sidelines while watching the kids play sports. Pedal a stationary bike or do strength training exercises while you watch TV at night. You must find the time to be active throughout the day.

4. Write it down

If you are looking to lose weight, shrink your waist, or improve your aerobic conditioning, you should write down your daily exercise. Seeing the benefits of regular exercise on paper may help you stay motivated.

You may also find it helps to keep an exercise diary. Record what you did during each exercise session, how long you exercised and how you felt afterward. Recording your efforts can help you work toward your goals and remind you of your progress.

5. Train with a friend or in a group

You’re not in this alone. Invite family, friends, or co-workers to join you when you exercise. Work out with your partner or other loved ones. Play soccer with your kids. Organize a group of neighbors to take fitness classes at a local health club.

6. Reward yourself

After each exercise session, take a few minutes to reflect on the good feelings that exercise gives you. This type of internal reward can help you make a long-term commitment to regular exercise. External rewards can help, too. When you reach a longer range goal, treat yourself to a new pair of walking shoes or new tunes to enjoy while you exercise.

7. Be flexible with training

If you’re too busy to work out or simply don’t feel up to it, take a day or two off. Be gentle with yourself if you need a break. The important thing is to get back on track as soon as you can.

Now that you’ve regained your enthusiasm, get moving! Set your goals, make it fun and reward yourself from time to time. Remember, staying physical activity is for life.

 

Benefits of Aerobic Exercise

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Aerobic conditioning, also called cardiorespiratory or cardiovascular fitness, is a good measure of the heart’s ability to pump oxygenated blood throughout the muscles. Oxygenated blood carries the nutrients the body needs to function effectively. A healthy heart can pump great volumes of oxygenated blood with each beat and will have a high level of cardiovascular fitness.

Heart disease is directly associated with the cardiorespiratory and cardiovascular systems. One of the primary signs of heart and lung diseases include becoming winded with mild exertion. Individuals with heart or lung disease often become fatigued when performing day to day tasks that most of us take for granted. Aerobic exercise can help increase the body’s utilization of oxygenated blood pumping throughout the body, thus making our bodies stronger and more efficient performing everyday activities.

Aerobic exercise can be as simple as walking or taking the stairs up to your office, or can be as strenuous as running a marathon or participating in a triathlon. The key point is to be healthy enough to do the activities you want to do.

Cardiovascular exercise should be done at least 3 days per week for minimal positive aerobic enhancement and reduction of body fat stores. For maximum results, intermediate and advanced trainees should be doing 5-6 days of cardiovascular conditioning per week, for a minimum of 30 minutes and not more than 60 minutes. Exercise modes include any activity (walking, jogging, inline skating, swimming, biking, etc.) that will get your heart rate up into your target heart rate zone.

Benefits Of Aerobic Conditioning:

  1. Improves blood pressure
  2. Decreases risk of developing colon cancer
  3. Reduced insulin needs
  4. Decreases risk of cardiovascular disease
  5. Lower mortality rates at all ages from all diseases
  6. Decreases serum triglycerides
  7. Helps to reduce body fat
  8. Increases HDLs (the good cholesterol)
  9. Improved glucose tolerance
  10. Decreases LDLs (the bad cholesterol)
  11. Enhances performance of work and recreational activities
  12. Relieves symptoms of depression and anxiety

Short on Time? Cardio or Weights?

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Every week I hear from a client, “I don’t have enough time to get in my cardio and weight training this week, which one should I skip, which one is most important?” My response, “Don’t skip either, both are important and need to be done with consistency.”

If you are on a mission to lose weight, the cardio is going to help you burn off that stored energy, otherwise known as body fat. The strength training can’t be skipped either, your muscles need to be stimulated weekly in order to promote proper growth and development so your muscles become stronger and shapelier.

When you are short on time, the best way to get in your cardio and strength training is through what I call High Intensity Circuit Training (HICT). This type of circuit training involves high intensity cardio bouts mixed in with weight training. What makes this type of training great for people with little time, which is most of us, is that you combine your cardiovascular conditioning with resistance training. This will give you a total body workout. You’re not only burning calories and body fat, but you are also strengthening your heart and improving your muscular strength and endurance. High Intensity Circuit Training can be accomplished many ways with no equipment, minimal equipment, or with a fully loaded gym.

My favorite way to train clients is by incorporating basic calesthetics with strength training. You must first get your heart rate up high, at the upper end of your target heart rate zone, in a short period of time, usually 45-60 seconds. Once the heart rate is up, continue on to a 3 to 4 exercise strength training circuit. For example, do 60 seconds of jumping jacks, then, with no rest, move on to 15 push-ups, then on to 20 jump squats, then on to 15 ball push-ups, then do 20 lunges. Repeat the circuit 2 more times. Now this is just a very basic example of HICT, but nevertheless you are accomplishing your cardio and strength training in a short, very intense period of time. I have several of my advanced clients doing up to 16 different exercises in one circuit and burning over 700 calories in 60 minutes (I typically have clients do three sets for each circuit).

When choosing high intensity cardio bouts, you can’t go wrong with calesthetics such as jumping jacks, scissor jumps with jabs, squat thrusts, or mountain climbers. All of these will get your heart rate up very high in a very short period of time. The cardio bouts don’t have to be calesthetics. You can also incorporate cardio equipment such as the treadmill, elliptical, and stationary bike. However, I find that a high intensity cardio bout on a piece of equipment takes a little more time to get the heart rate up. So you might want to increase the time to 2-3 minutes rather than 45-60 seconds. You must be going as fast and as hard as you can on the piece of equipment you choose at the time.

The weight training circuit following the cardio bout can be set up in a variety of ways. This is where you have to be creative and piece together a total body circuit, or just lower or upper body combinations or super sets. If you want to view some great examples of this, go to my YouTube Channel. There are currently 4 circuits posted that will guide you through a variety of High Intensity Circuit Training.

High Intensity Circuit Training may not be for everyone. This is an option for more intermediate to advanced trainees that are short on time. However, beginners can go slow and at a lower intensity to accomplish such training. Remember to always check with a doctor or fitness professional to be sure this type of training is right for you.

Your options are endless when it comes to High Intensity Circuit Training. The combinations of exercises for your entire body will continue to grow if you are thoughtful in setting up your circuits. So, don’t skip weights or cardio when you have a busy schedule. Take advantage of what little time you have to exercise and maximize every minute of your workout by doing High Intensity Circuit Training.

 

Busting 4 Workout Myths

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Over these 15 years of personal training I have experienced several workout myths that people truly believe. Myths that sound very true however are the furthest from the truth. The following 4 myths are the ones I hear the most.

Myth #1: Working out for less than an hour doesn’t do you any good.

Fact:

All physical activity is good for your body, even if it is 10 minutes. The American Heart Association recommends getting 150 minutes of moderate physical activity a week, 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity, or a combination of the two. Research has shown that 30 minutes of physical activity, even if broken up into 3 ten minute segments throughout the day, has tremendous health benefits such as reducing blood pressure, decreased risk of diabetes, lower cholesterol levels, stronger immunity, and decreased stress.

Myth #2: Spot reduction is possible.

Fact:

Reducing body fat in one particular area of your body by doing certain exercises CANNOT burn body fat in that area. For example, I have clients that still insist on doing hundreds of crunches to burn abdominal fat. Granted, these crunches may be strengthening the abdominal muscles, however the fat around the midsection is not being burned from the crunches. In order to burn body fat, one must perform cardiovascular exercises and do strength training to increase muscle mass. Individuals’ bodies are different and body fat will be burned according to each person’s genetic make-up. Some of you may hold on to fat at the hips, while others tend to carry fat in the midsection. The key is to be consistent with aerobic conditioning and strength training in order to decrease reduction of one’s total body fat percentage.

Myth #3: I need to be sweating to have a good workout.

Fact:

Everyone sweats differently. This is part of your body’s thermostat and it’s way of cooling you off. So sweating is not a good way to determine if you are getting in a good workout. Keeping track of your target heart rate and also administering the “talk test” are good ways to make sure your workout is strenuous enough for you. Find out what the “talk test” is and determine your target heart rate zone by visiting the Aerobic Conditioning Page.

Myth #4: Aerobic exercise is the only exercise you need in order to loose weight and be healthy.

Fact:

Aerobic exercise helps to keep your heart strong and burn calories, however, strength training helps to keep your entire body strong. Having muscle mass is important for all daily activities and for keeping your metabolism high. Strength training has several other benefits including reducing blood pressure, preventing osteoporosis, and decreasing cholesterol levels. Everyone should participate in a weekly strength training program in addition to daily aerobic exercise.

 

 

 

Consistency Is The Key

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Jeff Angel

Consistency is the key when trying to lose weight and body fat. You must stay on your training program and maintain healthy eating habits until you reach your goal weight. Sneaking small temptations on occasion is fine. But remember the big picture and the goals you’ve set. Too many small temptations will eventually set you further away from your desired weight. These setbacks may eventually get you down, depressed, and not motivated enough to stick with the program.

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