One of the members at the gym where I work said to me, “I don’t know what to do. My fitness level isn’t increasing.”
I noticed that he took long breaks between exercises and spent a lot of time socializing with friends. “Try keeping your heart rate up,” I told him. “Work a little faster, with a little less talking,” I smiled.
It’s easy to get into an exercising rut. We get too “casual” with our workouts. We’ve lose focus and intensity.
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I was watching an info-mercial on an exercise system this morning while pedaling away on the elliptical. I should say I was sort of watching it while listening to music on my Ipod. Then something caught my attention
A young man was giving his “testimony” about how great the exercise DVDs are, how he’d lost weight, got fit, and loved doing them. He is a delivery driver and drives a large box van. During his lunch break, he gets in the back and exercises to his portable DVD player.
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Exercise is an awesome, positive way to burn off emotions.
Some of my best workouts have been when I was running high on emotions – bad or good. There is restless energy when your emotions are up. This energy needs to be spent – in a healthy way.
When we don’t have a good way to vent, we often end up trying to relieve our emotions through other means. This could result in overeating, treating others unkindly, or restless sleep.
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Not everyone can run or kickbox or jump rope. Many people suffer from knee pain, low back issues, or weak bladder problems. They cannot tolerate high impact exercises.
If this is the case for you, be assured that you can still work out hard and get fit. The key is finding low impact exercises that get your heart rate up and burn calories.
Here are 5 low impact options to get you going:
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You only have a certain amount of time to exercise, right? Don’t you want to burn as many calories as you can? Don’t you want to strengthen your heart and lungs, and get more fit?
Then you’re going to have to make your exercise count!
I see people sitting on bikes reading magazines and strolling on treadmills like they’re taking a walk in the park. There’s no sweat on their brow, no heavy breathing. They’re not red in the face from exertion. In fact, they look pretty comfy.
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Today was definitely an I-don’t-feel-like-exercising day. I was tired and had a headache, and dreary rain was falling outside. When my timer went off for me to get up off the couch and get ready for the gym, I groaned.
I turned the timer off, but seriously considered resetting it and crashing back on the couch. However, if I did that I wouldn’t have been able to get in my full workout. I knew I’d be disappointed with myself and my calorie burn. So I dragged on my exercise clothes and herded my kids out the door.
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Everyone has a particular trouble spot they hate – wide hips, a shelf butt, a flabby belly. And they ask me, “What exercises can I do to get rid of this?”
Well, let me tell you the bad news first.
There is no such thing as spot training. You can do 500 abdominal crunches everyday and still have a flabby belly. Why? Because there’s still fat on top of those muscles.
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Tonight I had a little scare. One of my clients started feeling badly toward the end of her workout. She felt weak and light headed. She sat down and dropped her head. She began to sweat and turned pale.
I started asking her questions to rule out a cardiac event. She told me she hadn’t eaten anything since lunchtime, which was six hours past. And then she’d only eaten a salad with chicken.
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As I sit here typing, my back, shoulders, and arms are hurting! If I move my legs around, they’ll groan in protest. I haven’t had a workout that killed me like this in a long time. (I just want to go to bed!!)
I totally switched up my workout and did a bunch of new moves that use a lot of ballistic and full body movements. I rested as little as possible to keep the heart pounding. Yowzer. I’m feeling it.
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Last night after a full day of homeschooling and several hours of personal training, I finally got time to exercise. Getting on the treadmill at 8:00 p.m. was not what I wanted to do either. I wanted to go home for dinner!
My energy was in the basement and I felt a little nauseous. I started at a jog to warm up then took the speed up to run. Over the next 45 minutes I stopped a few times to get a sip of water and let my stomach calm down. It was not my best workout for sure, but I got it done and hit my calorie goal.
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One of my clients started personal training with me about four months ago. Her first several weeks were miserable. High heart rate, puffing and hard breathing, very sore muscles – she had all the beginner’s woes. After a workout she was totally “dead” for the night and couldn’t even cook dinner. (She literally had to make crock pot dinners.)
You should see her now. It’s not that she doesn’t work as hard, but she’s had great improvements in her fitness. Her recovery time is so much faster. She can lift heavier weights, do squat jumps, inclines on the treadmill, and difficult ab sets. She can now do 20 reps on the abdominal bicycle exercise, which was impossible for her at the beginning.
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Everybody needs to exercise. It’s good for your heart, lungs, muscles, bones, psyche, weight, and attitude.
But it can be hard to get in the exercise groove – and it can be hard to stay committed.
I see so many people jump into exercise gung-ho. Oh, they’re getting on the elliptical, trying new exercise classes, and learning the weight circuit. Three weeks later, hmmm, where did they go? Or maybe they even made it three months. Then, bam, they fall off track and don’t come back.
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There’s still the misconception that weight training will bulk you up. People trying to lose weight tend to stay away from weights. Instead they put in hours of walking, swimming, and bike riding. All those are fantastic! But to get the best results – in both weight loss and body composition – there’s no trade off for weight lifting.
When you lose weight, you will lose some lean muscle. It’s an unfortunate fact because the more muscle you have, the higher your metabolism, and the more calories you burn. So you can see the problem here. More weight loss, more muscle loss, lower metabolism, less calorie burn.
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If you’re like me, the amount of time you have to exercise varies from day to day. One day I may get in 75 minutes, the next day 45, another day 60, and if I’m really lucky, two days of 100 minutes. I have to roll with my schedule.
Your schedule probably fluctuates daily too. The important thing is to not skip exercise even if it has to be squeezed in. On the days you do have more time, fit in that intense exercise session.
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One client I began working with a few months ago started out very unfit. Over 40 and overweight, her muscles were weak, she was in poor cardiovascular condition, and she had very little endurance. She had to stop between each exercise to recover and catch her breath.
In the time since we began training, she has become incredibly stronger. It’s amazing and inspiring. Not only does she weight train, she goes outdoors on walking/jogging intervals. Her heart rate response is so much better and she has great recovery time.
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Tonight was the first time I saw someone walking the track while reading a magazine. She was strolling slowly along, flipping through the pages, glancing up from time to time. She looked genuinely relaxed.
Then another person meandered along, cell phone to her ear, while she talked and laughed. She looked like she was having social time not workout time.
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When it comes to working out, fatigue is your friend. You want to work your muscles hard so they tire out. You are burning calories, getting stronger, and increasing your endurance.
In other words, the harder you work, the more you can work hard. The more calories you burn. The more fit you become.
I often see people sitting on the exercise bike reading a magazine while pedaling. They look very comfy. There’s no sweat, no elevated breathing, no flushed cheeks. Hmm, that seems more like checking out than working out.
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What woman doesn’t want firmer thighs, hips and butt? We want to fit well in our jeans and look good in our pant suit.
Unfortunately, a lot of women store extra fat in this area. Of course, if you have extra weight, you’ll have to work on losing it. But you can also workout to tone and tighten those trouble spots.
Here are three exercises to get you started toning your hips, glutes and thighs!
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I love to run. Not just because it feels great to be outside in the cool wind, my feet rhythmically hitting the road, my mind clear, my stress draining away…
I love to run because it’s a great calorie burn. It’s actually the best exercise I’ve found to simply burn calories. I cycle, kick box, weight train, use cardio machines, etc., but when I run my body uses up more calories than it does for any other exercise.
Why is that?
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I have several small groups that I train each week. It’s challenging to keep everyone exercising at their highest effort because of the different fitness levels. One person may be able to run around the track while another person may only be able to walk briskly. One person may be able to do pushups on their toes, the other person on their knees.
Sometimes the person with the lower fitness level will start comparing herself to the others in the group. I’ve seen this lead to self doubt and insecurity. She may feel like she is not capable enough to exercise with the others and is slowing the group down. It takes a lot of courage for her to continue coming to the group exercise.
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I know, it’s a strange title, but I’ll explain shortly. So just hang in there with me.
Sometimes I get flack for being so committed to exercise. There are some people who don’t understand why I run or workout. They think I should skip it for other priorities. Sure, in some cases exercise has to be dropped for the day (like the day after I spent all night in the ER with my mom).
But I would say the people who don’t understand my commitment to exercise aren’t exercisers themselves. They look at exercise as uncomfortable, unpleasant and a waste of time. Or maybe not a waste of time, but not worth the time.
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I took a great kickboxing class tonight. The instructor is awesome. Every time I thought I was pushing myself hard, he’d yell, “Come on! More Power! Go crazy!” So I’d punch and kick harder. Then he’d yell again and I’d take it up yet another notch, giving it everything I had. My heart was pounding, my muscles burning.
At one point, I thought to myself, “I don’t think I can work ANY harder.” Another thought followed a split second later, “You don’t know until you try.” So I tried and I was able to work even harder.
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This is a fun workout that targets cardio, hamstrings, glutes and quads. It is done on the treadmill so you can do it anytime regardless of the weather! It only takes 20 minutes, but it’s a high intensity workout. It’s great for when you have a short time to exercise, or want to follow your cardio with a leg weight workout.
Begin by setting the treadmill on a 5% incline and walk at a brisk pace for five minutes. On the sixth minute, slow the speed to 2.5 and do walking lunges. Take big steps and lunge deeply. Then follow this progression for the following minutes:
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Today was a hectic day schooling the kids, shopping for groceries, and going in to work to train a client. I also had to take my boys to their evening activity, feed them dinner, walk the dogs, etc. It turned out to be a crazy day.
In between everything, I was able to squeeze in a one-hour workout. I wanted to burn the maximum amount of calories I could in that time while hitting cardio, legs, and abs.
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Want to wear sporty tank tops and cute sundresses? But you’re embarrassed about your flabby arms…
You can have nicely defined shoulders and firm arms, but it’ll take a little work! You’ll have to strength train your upper body twice a week.
Use challenging weights and, ladies, don’t worry that you’ll bulk up. You won’t bulk up, but you will start to look toned. Wouldn’t that be nice? Guys, if you want to add some muscle, really push your weights (8-10 reps with a spotter). For toning, do each exercise for 15 repetitions and repeat a second time.
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