Bring It Home Personal Training teaches all clients the importance of the 11 components of physical fitness. Muscular strength and muscular endurance are two health-related components of fitness that are important in everyone’s daily life.

Muscular strength is defined as the maximum amount of force that can be exerted by a muscle. Muscular endurance is defined as the ability of a muscle to exert a force repeatedly over a period of time. Muscular strength and muscular endurance are related; an increase in one of these components of fitness usually results in some degree of improvement in the other.  Having a reasonable amount of strength and endurance can help individuals to be more efficient in performing daily tasks.

Bring It Home Personal Training believes that a strong core is most important for total body strength. Strengthening of the core (abdominal muscles, obliques, and low- back) will improve posture, help to prevent low-back pain, and make your entire body stronger. Your body’s core generally consists of the rectus abdominis (abs), internal and external obliques, transverses abdominis (deep reinforcing layer), and erector spinae (low back). The core is the center of all your strength. Having a weak core will certainly cause low back pain, poor posture, and poor balance. Strengthening and stretching this area of the body should be done with focus and consistency.

All muscle groups should be stimulated regularly through some type of resistance training. Resistance training, also known as strength training, not only makes muscles strong, firm, and shapely, but also benefits the body in other ways. Please be sure to check out our gallery for free images of exercises that help to improve muscle strength and endurance and all other components of physical fitness.

Benefits Of Strength Training:

1. Increased muscular strength and endurance
2. Decrease in body fat
3. Stronger tendons and ligaments
4. Decrease in blood pressure
5. Improves glucose tolerance
6. Increases HDLs (the good cholesterol)
7. Decreases LDLs (the bad cholesterol) and triglycerides
8. Decreases risk of osteoporosis
9. Reduced insulin needs
10. Improved health related quality of life
11. Enhances feeling of well-being
12. Enhances performance of work and recreational activities
13. Lower mortality rates at all ages from all causes
14. Relieves symptoms of depression and anxiety
15. Improves self-esteem

In general, strength training should be done at least two days a week, with a minimum of two exercises per muscle group. Some people will have totally different fitness programs depending on what goals have been set. Individuals are unique with different strengths and weaknesses. Finding a weak point is something to work on, not to neglect. Having the proper mix of exercises is most important in developing a fitness program that will help you to improve upon your weaknesses and to reach your goals.

Developing the body you want and reaching optimal physical fitness levels takes time. Do not expect changes to occur over night. You must be patient and consistent with all aspects of your fitness program. Consistency is the key. If you find yourself putting your strength training days off, you will not see the changes you want to make. Also, be sure to incorporate all 11 components of phyiscal fitness into your daily exercise program. Having a well-rounded exercise program will help you to stay motivated and focused. You will see increased muscular strength and muscular endurance, toned muscles, increased energy, and better self-image.

Sorry for not being so regular with my blogs lately. Training clients and handling family life can be overwhelming! Thanks again to everyone that voted for Bring It Home Personal Training in the clickondetroit.com “Vote 4 the Best” contest. If you haven’t heard, we did win the contest! That’s the last I’ll mention it. Let’s get back to blogging…

These 5 tips are my best tips for improving physical fitness levels:

1. You must do strength training at least twice a week. Total body workouts are great for building muscular strength and endurance.

2. You have to do cardiovascular endurance training every day for at least 30 minutes. Your heart is the most important muscle in your body. Keep it strong!

3. Be sure to stretch all muscle groups every day! Stretching may help to prevent injuries and will certainly help you to release stress and relax.

4. Drink plenty of water throughout the day. A good rule of thumb is to drink approximately half of your body weight in ounces of water per day. For example: if you weigh 120 pounds, you should drink approximately 60 ounces of water a day.

5. Get plenty of sleep, at least 7 to 8 hours a day. Your body grows and repairs itself when sleeping. A good night sleep will help you to get through a long day of school and/or work and leave you with plenty of energy to exercise.

Obviously there are many more healthy tips out there. These are just five of my favorites to help improve physical fitness levels. Of course, be sure to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, complex carbohydrates, and lean proteins. Improving your physical fitness level can be accomplished at any age. As you’ve heard from me in the past, consistency and motivation are keys to achieving your goals. Stay active and eat healthy!

Summer’s over. It’s sad to say. We had a great summer with our boys, Max and Will. Our summer trips were full of traveling around our great state of Michigan and a lot of physical activity such as swimming, biking, running, football, and throwing the frisbee just to name a few. With no school to worry about during the summer, it’s easy to keep our physical fitness levels high. Everyday this summer has been filled with exercise. I’m sure it’s easy for most families to stay active and physically fit during the summer. I see it on FaceBook all the time. However, school schedules are back in place and I know that for our family it’s a lot more difficult to get family fitness in.

Teaching my kids about physical fitness, exercise, and proper nutrition comes naturally to me. Ever since the boys were toddlers, I’ve been teaching them the importance of eating healthy foods, such as vegetables and fruits, the health benefits of exercise, and how to incorporate physical fitness into their daily lives. My kids are 9 and 5 years old now and both know the difference between “good carbs” and “bad carbs”. What a lean protein is and why protein is important. They also know that in order to stay strong and physically fit, they should do some sort of physical activity or exercise every day.

With school starting back up, keeping up with daily physical activity will be a bit of a challenge for the boys. However, we, their parents, always find ways to keep them active in order to keep their physical fitness levels high. One of the best ways we find to keep our kids active during the school year is to get the kids involved in an organized team sport they enjoy. Key phrase here is “sport they enjoy”. If your child does not enjoy the sport you put him/her in, then it simply will not be fun for him or for you. When a child enjoys and has fun playing a specific sport, then he will certainly put more effort into getting better which will lead to more exercise and training. My son, Max, played on several organized flag football and basketball teams and never really enjoyed it. He was pretty good at both sports but never really liked either one. We’ve found that swimming is his sport. He loves it! Will, my 5 year old, loves any sport right now. So he wants to be on all the sports teams he can.

Participating on a sports team is great exercise and physical fitness for kids. However, this may not be for everyone. So, it is up to the parents to help figure out ways to keep their children active and physically fit during the school year. Remember to make exercise fun and educational for kids. Parents should incorporate the 11 components of physical fitness into kids’ exercise programs. These 11 components of physical fitness can be found by clicking here. The following physical activities and exercises are what I have my boys do outside of their team sports in order to keep their fitness levels high during the school year:

• Set up an outdoor obstacle course that involves running around chairs, jumping over low brooms supported by chairs, bear crawling on hands and feet, and racing towards a finish line. Obstacle courses help to improve your child’s coordination, agility, cardiovascular endurance, and muscular strength and endurance. High intensity work-outs like this will help to burn a lot of calories and keep your child’s body fat low. Obstacle courses are not only fun, they are a total body work-out.
• Have your kids complete 50 push-ups throughout the day. Ten when they wake up, ten after breakfast, ten on the playground, ten when they get home from school, and ten before bed. Push ups are a great way to improve kids’ muscular strength and muscular endurance.
• Jumping rope is a great exercise for kids and it’s fun! Jumping rope will improve your child’s reaction time, speed, and cardiovascular endurance and will certainly help to keep your child at a healthy weight.
• Go for a bike ride. This is my boys’ favorite exercise to do. Biking helps to improve your kids’ cardiovascular endurance, balance, and muscular strength and endurance. We love riding bikes with our kids!
• After homework is done, we send our kids outside. We’ve found that our boys are always running around when they go outside. Instead of sitting inside and playing video games or looking at a computer, get your kids outside! Their imaginations will take over and they’ll be running around in no time.

These physical activities for kids are just a few of my favorites. Remember to keep exercise fun and educational. Physical fitness should be fun for kids and adults. If exercise is not fun, kids will tend to not engage in it and their physical fitness levels will drop. Be sure to teach your kids the importance of  incorporating the 11 components of physical fitness into their daily exercise program. These components of physical fitness, along with healthy eating, are important for total body health and wellness. Just because summer is over, don’t neglect your child’s physical fitness. Make the time for exercise everyday, be creative with your child’s exercise program, and parents should exercise with your children. You and your kids can be healthy together!