Fitness+Tip+of+the+Week

=Fitness Tips= = =

===*If anyone has fitness questions they would like me to respond to directly, just go to the top of the page and click discussion. Then reply with your question in the questions thread. I will then make my tip of the week a response to your question. Thanks!===

//**Tip 1 CORE STRENGTH:**// After consulting a physician, the next step to starting a work out program is building your core strength. Core strength is of vast importance. A strong core will prevent injury, create a stable base for weight lifting, reduce back pain, and will make a person's movement more efficient and effective. The most important thing to remember is to start slow with your core work and move from the most stable exercises gradually advancing to less stable exercises. For specific examples or ideas of how to build your core strength, please do not hesitate to contact me.

//**Tip 2 CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH:**// To maintain cardiovascular health, an individual should be active for approximately 30 minutes per day. Some individual’s schedules allow them to designate time to fitness activities on a daily basis. Many people on the other hand, find it difficult on certain days to add these types of activities into their daily schedule. A great way to work in your cardiovascular fitness when your schedule becomes tight is to create a list of chores that need to be completed around the house that can be physically taxing. Break them up into 30 minute intervals and save them for days when getting to the gym is less than ideal. Examples of this may be walking the dog, yard work, cleaning the house, or rearranging furniture. As a practical example, there is a ton of yard work that needs to be done at my own house. After hitting the weights, I skip on my cardio sessions and do a minimal of 30 minutes of yard work. I make sure to work at a pace that is somewhat strenuous. This allows me to get my cardio in and also finish the chores that I need to complete around the house. It is a win win situation that everyone should take advantage of.

//**Tip 3 TOTAL BODY EXERCISES:**//Total body exercises are a great way to incorporate every component of fitness into one seamless work out. By doing total body exercises in a circuit type fashion a person can work muscular strength, muscular endurance, cardiovascular endurance, flexibility and reduce their body fat percentage. An example of a good total body work out is as follows:

1. Dumbbell Squat to Over Head Press ([]) 2. Dumbbell or Kettle bell Front Swing ([]) 3. Lunge to Side Raise ([]) 4. Squat Thrust to Push Up to Explosive Jump ([])

Remember, these movements are not overly complex but should not be done by a complete novice lifter. They incorporate multiple exercises in one movement pattern. Please consult a physician before starting any fitness program. If you have any questions please let me know.

//**Tip 4: Control!:**// The biggest misconception with weight training is that a person needs to use extremely heavy weight to get results. This is not true. In reality, a person should use a moderate to heavy weight that they can control. The focus should never be on the amount of weight moved; it should be on a persons form and control of the movement during each set of their desired rep range. If a person's form breaks down, if a person cannot control the eccentric portion of the lift, or they are using momentum to lift the weight then that weight is too heavy for the desired results. Do not let your pride get in the way of these results. If your form breaks down, lighten the weight. It will benefit you in the end by preventing injury, over training, and wasted efforts and reps.

//**Tip 5: Recovery:**// A person gets bigger and stronger on their lifting days right? WRONG! A person NEEDS to rest in order to increase muscle mass and get results from his or her work out. On work out days what a person is really doing is providing a stimulus, or level of stress on the body that pushes it to a limit that it cannot handle easily. In turn, on rest days a person's body recovers and adapts to the stress that was previously placed on it. Without these rest and adaptation days, a person's body never fully adapts and recovers from previous work loads. This will decrease results and eventually lead to over training and injury. To make the most out of work outs always allow at least 48 hrs rest for each muscle group that is work. To maximize these rest and adaptation days a proper diet should be followed and equally as important, a person should sleep minimum of 6 hrs a night. During sleep most of the repair is done and growth hormone is naturally produced in the body which will aid in recovery and completion of these adaptations. So in review, to recover properly rest at least 48 hrs between training muscle groups, sleep a minimum of 6 hours but preferably 8, and follow a nutritious protein rich diet.


 * //Tip 6: Diet://** It is always important to follow a healthy nutritious diet that is rich in vegetables, complex carbohydrates, fruits and lean proteins. I understand many people rush through meals and often have to grab meals on the go. How do we get around this? We fix this issue by planning our meals ahead of time. A great way to make sure one is eating well, is by preparing meals during free time for the entire week. Invest in tupperware containers and also a mini-cooler that you can take to work, school or any other events that you are going to. This will ensure you will be getting the proper nutrients your body needs without over indulging or eating the wrong things.


 * //Tip 7: EPOC://** EPOC stands for Excess Postexercise Consumption. What exactly is this you might ask? Well, this is the increase of metabolic rate that occurs after one exercises. During this state a person burns more calories at rest, which is great for maintaining or losing weight. The reason one's body has a higher metabolic rate after exercise is because the body has to work to regulate its self back to homeostasis. Homeostasis is the steady, natural state of the body. The body in turn uses calories, which often comes from stored body fat, to repair damaged muscle fibers, restock muscle glycogen levels, remove lactic acid from the muscles and regulate body temperature. To help take advantage of EPOC, a person can change their work out from 3 days a week to 5 days a week. They do not have to change their work load, but can just break their work out into smaller parts. This will increase a person’s over all EPOC time during the week thus burning more calories at rest. Another way this can be done is by breaking cardiovascular work into two segments. For example, a person who does 30 minutes of cardio and 20 minutes of weight training during one work out session can break up their cardio work into a 15 minute segment before weight training and a 15 minute segment after their training. This will cause the body to have to regulate itself more often in one work out, thus increasing the time of EPOC. Why work harder when we can work smarter!

//**Tip 8: Eccentric and Concentric**//: Eccentric and concentric refers to two different types of muscle contractions. Eccentric contractions are when the muscle resists against a force that is lengthening the muscle (ex. lowering a bench press to the chest). Concentric refers to moving against resistance when the muscle is shortening (ex. pressing the bar off the chest in a bench press). It is always important to control the eccentric portion of every lift and to explode through the concentric portion of the lift when weight training. The eccentric portion of a lift should always be slightly slower than the concentric to prevent injury and to also work the muscle more and keep it under tension longer. Negative reps refer to the over load of resistance to the point where concentric contractions usually are not possible, but exaggerated eccentric contractions can still be present. This results in large muscle damage and should be done with an experienced spotter and by experienced weight lifters. The high amounts of muscle damage can possibly lead to injury or over training in a novice lifter, but the results yielded can be great for adding size and strength in an experienced lifter. It is also a great plateau buster. To conclude, be aware of both portions of the lift, make sure your eccentric contractions are a bit slower and under control, and be sure to forcefully contract the muscle and explode through your concentric portion of every lift. Attached is a video that shows a good example of negative lifting.

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//**Tip: 9 Cardio Alternatives:**// Cardio work is boring, annoying, tedious, but worst of all is that it is needed to get the aesthetic results and health benefits most people want from working out. I personally hate long tedious cardio work outs. I almost never use the word hate but in this instance the word absolutely applies. I have found some ways around this dilemma and these alternatives are well represented in the two following articles. If you do not enjoy monotonous, long, boring, low intensity cardiovascular work outs and are looking for a more effective and efficient way of burning fat and working your heart check these articles out. It may be just what you are looking for.

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//**Tip 10: Healthy Meals:**// One's diet plays a major role in body transformation, and sadly is often over looked. It is over looked for many reasons, one of which is the inability to create healthy meals. The following article outlines a few simple, easy to make meals that are healthy and will help you reach the goals you are looking for. Good luck and bon appetit! []

//**Tip 11: Diet Plans:**// A good diet plan is not something that begins with a drastic change. When people drastically change their diet, they will fail almost every single time. Gradually introducing healthier foods and healthier alternatives is the way to go. Start by changing the little things. Change white bread for wheat bread, mayo for mustard, regular salad dressing to light oil based dressings, or just adjusting your meat sources to leaner cuts of meat. The key to dieting is that you should never choose a diet that makes you miserable. Your diet should make you feel good about yourself because you are making the right food choices. If it makes you feel miserable then your diet is too strict too soon. Remember, when it comes to your health it is not a sprint, it is a marathon. Be patient and consistency is key.


 * //Tip 12: Pre exhaustion //**: The idea behind pre exhaustion is to work the single joint lifts first to tax the targeted muscle and then move on to the multi-joint lifts while the targeted muscle is already tired. This creates a new stress for the body to handle and may help bust plateaus and create a new type of adaptation. Also, since the muscle is pre exhausted, the loads used in the multi-joint lifts will be lower than normal. This can be a great way to really work the muscle while giving the joints and tendons of the body a rest from heavy weights. For example, doing cable flies and dumbbell flies would be a great way to exhaust the chest before doing a bench press. Another example would be to do front raises and lateral raises for the shoulders before doing an over head pressing motion. This is not something one would want to do all the time though, because this type of lifting does not yield the best strength returns. It should be used to change things up and bust through plateaus.

//**Tip 13: Take Breaks:**// Rest is very important when it comes to putting together a workout program. What people often devalue is taking a complete break from their training all together. Often times it is very advantageous to take a full week off after an intense 2-3 months of training. Why you might ask? Well first off, the path to the end goal should not be considered a sprint but rather a marathon. Taking a week off will not diminish your long term strength and results. In actuality it will make you stronger and help you to train more consistently in the long term. If a person is training heavy and consistently, that week off will help with recovering fully and allow them to continue on the path they are on. When people consistently train at high levels and high volumes without some type of extended break their joints begin to hurt, muscles and ligaments begin to get overly damaged, and the central nervous system (CNS) begins to get worn down. CNS rest is often times over looked and not thought about by most people. The CNS is required to recruit and contract as much muscle as possible to move large loads. When the CNS is fresh a person’s work outs are more effective, efficient, and will spark greater results. In conclusion, taking a week off every 2-3 months will spark greater gains in the long run and will make a person stronger. The body will tell a person when extended rest is needed. My biggest tip to you is to listen to your body, it never lies.

//**Tip 14: Saving Money!:**// Saving money interests everyone. Eating healthy often can be costly and as a student I understand funds are limited to nonexistent. This healthy and budget friendly grocery list is a great way to eat healthy and save a buck or three. If no source of income is available, I would suggest giving this list and reading this article over with a parent, guardian, or whoever buys the groceries in the house hold.

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