Get Out of Your Fitness Rut! My Story

The first thing I need to admit is that I am only just coming out the other side of a serious lack of motivation with my own health and fitness. That's right! A fitness professional who has helped hundreds of people to reach their health and fitness goals can go off track. We all go through periods where motivation is lacking. Although this hasn't been ideal for me, it has really helped me to empathize with people who are going through a struggle to get on top of their weight loss goals. Let me tell you a little more about my story.

My Story:

A few years ago I was living my dream. Part of the 'Green Machine' training for a job that I always wanted to do. Extreme fitness training, abseiling down buildings and elevator shafts, jumping out of helicopters and being part of a highly trained team was all in a days work. Literally in an instant that dream came to an end with no way to return. My sole reason for gaining top fitness for 10 years was cut off at the legs. I found myself lacking motivation to stay fit. I knew a lot about how to get fit and stay trim from my experiences but the desire to stay that way literally disappeared. One day I looked in the mirror and I was 25kgs (55lbs) overweight. Once at this point I became injury prone and it was a vicious cycle or 'too injured to get fit' and 'needing to get fit to stop being injured'.

The Turning Tide:

There is nothing like a serious health scare in your family to wake you up. The news that my father was undergoing urgent triple bypass surgery was a real wake up call. Knowing that heart disease was a part of my family history got me thinking hard about life. Whatever your current situation and the physical challenges you face, there is something you can do to stay active. No excuses. All you need is a catalyst for change.

Step 1: Own your current situation

The time came where I had to brush aside all the excuses and take charge of my health and fitness. Being overweight really is a choice. It's the choice to not invest in your own health by giving yourself at least 30 minutes a day to engage in being active. It's a choice to over indulge in poor nutrition over a prolonged period of time. The first step in change is to acknowledge your current situation and take responsibility for where you are.

Step 2: Any exercise is good exercise

Whether you are walking around the block with your dog, engaging in a boot camp session or training for a charity event, anything that you do towards staying active is a victory. My motto that I use for myself and my clients is 'moving is winning'. If you are moving your body in some way then you are winning your own health and fitness battle. Incremental gains are the best way to get fit without injuring your body. This philosophy will get you back to your best.

Step 3: Get organised with your nutrition

Time and time again, I see that being organised with food preparation is the main obstacle to clean eating. Having good eating habits is generally more of a logistical challenge than a temptation challenge once you get started. That is not to say that you won't have urges to eat junk once you are clean eating. Prepared meals help big time. While you are getting your weight down to a manageable level it's a good idea to be strict on your nutrition.

Step 4: Find your motivation

Take time daily to ponder on what you want for yourself with your health and fitness. How do you view yourself as a person in regards to your appearance and health? Wanting to look good is perfectly naturally and you don't have to look like a fitness model to be happy. Picture yourself and your partner and kids growing old together and cling to that feeling to keep you on track with your health and fitness goals.


Mark Tulloch is a fitness professional with a background in the military. He is the co-founder of

Boot It Fitness which trains bootcamp and fitness business trainers

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=MJ_Tulloch

Recovery After Exercise: Being At Your Best Day In Day Out Requires Effective Recovery

The ability to continue to train day after day, week after week, without flagging or injury comes down to lots of factors, but for me the most important of which is recovery. If you finish a hard ride, set of intervals, race or even endurance ride and simply stop you probably aren't giving your body the best chance to repair damage done by the next time you ride. Of course recovery is a very personal choice. I have a set way to recover which I know is different to my cycling peers, that doesn't mean that I am right and they are wrong or vice versa but that I have found my body works better following a different regime.

I'll start with immediately after an event, session or ride. The first thing I do is sink a recovery shake. I go for one with a high amount of carbohydrates with protein and other vitamins. You can shop around and try a few out to decide which one suits you best, again another personal preference. Once I've drank my shake I do one of a few other things depending on if I've finished a race and am away from home, or a ride or training session and am at home. If I'm at home I'll clean my bike and then jump in shower, following that I'll stretch and eat. If I'm at an event I'm unable to shower and clean my bike so I go straight into stretching (I do still clean myself and my bike - when at home!).

Stretching will untighten any firm muscles and help increase blood circulation to them. This will reduce muscle soreness and injury risk. Some riders' do a specific cool-down session on the bike or a turbo trainer. This will be a reverse of a warm-up the idea being to reduce heart rate and relax muscles in a similar way to stretching. I don't do an exact regime I just finish an event or ride by dropping to an easy gear and spinning my legs out. This should help to flush out any lactic acid build up. Again this element of recovery is very important if you want to train again the next day.

What people do on rest days, or as I call them recovery days, is again a very personal thing. I, as the change in day name suggests, do a recovery session. If you know your maximum heart rate or maximum minute power you can use simple calculation to work out at what percentage of these you need to train below in order for it to be a recovery ride. If you are training using power you should remain at less than 35% of your maximum and with heart rate you need to be below 60%. If you can use both this will ensure you remain in what is called the recovery zone. Training any higher than these will mean you are causing unnecessary strain on your muscles, they will not be recovering. I thoroughly believe you should do all recovery rides indoors, you are unable to monitor rides outside well enough to ensure you only use the recovery zones, and as said anything above this and you aren't recovering. Hills, traffic and weather will be a factor in your rides outside and all have the potential to turn a recovery ride into an endurance one. The maximum I do is a half hour recovery ride. The other option is to do nothing on your rest day, again this works for some but I find my legs are very heavy and tired after a day where I do nothing at all.

The final element of recovery is prolonged periods of rest. Sounds daunting to anyone who hasn't or doesn't take regular time off from training and racing but sometimes it is needed. A perfect example of when to take a prolonged period of rest is at the end of the cycling season. By the end you should be starting to tire, you may not realise it, and you may feel like continuing your training straight into the off season but you will struggle to maintain form throughout the winter without a rest beforehand. The issue will be that if you start to flag and your training is progressing as well as you'd like you may be forced to rest during the off season and destroying a lot of your hard work. So seriously consider taking rest between seasons. Depending on how hard you are training and what you are training for you may find that rest at other points in the season is necessary too, but this can be monitored by training progression, resting heart rates and other fitness and performance indicators.

As I say above, recovery is very much a personal element to any training program, you need to experiment with different recovery techniques and continue with those that are effective and not bother with those are not. Hopefully if you take some of this advice your training will become far more effective and your muscles less sore, win-win.


Pav Bryan - Owner & Coach

Pav Bryan Cycling Coach

Advanced Wattbike Cycling Performance & Fitness Testing, & Coaching

http://www.pavbryan.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Pav_Bryan

Nutrition And Exercise Plan For Fat Loss

INTERMITTENT FASTING AND 2 DAILY WORKOUTS

Get the 1st of 2 daily workouts before you have your 1st meal of the day. Wait 12 hours of not eating a meal before your workout to burn maximal body fat for energy. If you wait that long than your body has burned up most of its blood sugar stores through the night and early morning. Your body burns blood sugar first for fuel during a workout before it's able to burn body fat (adipose tissue). Since you have fasted for 12 hours your blood sugar is low and so it only takes a few minutes to burn that up resulting in immediate fat burning for energy.

You will simply workout on an empty stomach again later in the day for your 2nd workout to burn more fat.

Bonus tip - add 100-200 mg of caffeine to your system 30-60 minutes before both workouts to boost energy, increase strength, increase desire, focus, and best of all, to burn more fat! Caffeine will work with the body resulting in a slightly more fat burn during exercise. Do not add sugar or creamer to your caffeine. Try a cup of coffee, caffeine pills, or some green or black tea for example.

POST WORKOUT MEALS FOR BOTH DAILY MEALS

Now, 15-60 minutes after your workout is the best time to consume carbohydrates, protein, and dietary fat. This is important for muscle recovery, preventing muscle loss, healthy hormone production, and best of all, fat loss! If you fail to eat during this window of opportunity you will slow metabolism, increase muscle breakdown, and will be unable to fully replenish muscle energy for your following workout. Make sure your protein is a complete source like eggs, meat, fish, or soy protein. Make sure your carbs come from nature instead of a box. Fruits, vegetables, and oatmeal are great choices. Finally, add healthy fats like nuts, seeds, eggs, and olive oil for overall health including healthy hormone production. Eat foods that are not processed and are in its most natural state. For example brown rice beats white rice. Or 9 grain bread over the highly processed white bread. Find the diet that works well with your particular taste buds as everyone is a unique individual. There is no limit because your only eating twice per day, your energy requirements are higher due to a 2 a day training protocol, and because you are eating only after workouts thus feeding muscles instead of fat (adipose tissue).

Bonus tip - to get even better results eat certified organic labeled food when possible.


http://www.harrisburgpersonaltrainerjosh.com Get 1 week free boot camp trial 717-343-4955 or take advantage of all my follow along workout finishers and get free online personal training with me, Josh Wolfe

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joshua_Wolfe

Body Weight Skull Crushers

I read somewhere that Skull Crushers are the only exercise that has a "warning" in their name. I can only image how the name came about, but what I do know is that it's probably one of the single best Triceps Exercises you can do. What's even more awesome about this exercise is that you don't even need a gym to do them! Body weight Skull Crushers can be just as effective and getting those shirt busting guns that you're shooting for!

Body weight Skull Crushers

Guys may laugh off most body weight exercises because they think they need to be lifting mass amounts of weight to build muscle. This really isn't the case and you can visit any cross-training gym or take a circuit / bootcamp style class so see some really hot physiques that were built from mostly bodyweight exercises. For the women fear not, you're not going to get the bulk the guys will anyway because of purely genetic reasons, and this is an awesome exercise to help tone the upper arms.

What are Body weight Skull Crushers?

They're a variation of the common Skull Crusher Tricep workout. With weights, you're laying on a bench and extending a barbell to your forehead. With the bodyweight version you're using gravity, positioning, and well... your body's own weight.

How to Do Body weight Skull Crushers.

1. In the Gym: On a Smith Machine or rack set, adjust the bar to waist height or slightly higher. Outside the Gym: You can use just about any stable object that allows you to grasp with your hands like a counter top or staircase railing.

2. Keep your abs tight and form a plank as you grasp the bar from the upright position. (Note: a pair of lifting grips will ease hand fatigue and give you a more stable grip.)

3. Lower your body, bending at the elbows until your forehead is about to touch the bar. You'll want to focus on keeping your elbows tucked into your sides as much as possible. Pause.

4. Return back to the starting position, and that completes one full rep!

Tips:

The higher the bar, the less you'll be working the Triceps. The lower the bar, the more you'll hit the triceps.

This is not only a great Triceps Exercise, but it's a good stability exercise. Because you're also engaging your core in "planking" you'll probably even feel it in your abs as well!


Los Angeles Personal Trainer Riley Daye is part of the GymPaws Workout Gloves Fitness Team. His areas of study include Weight Lifting, Strength Training, Nutrition, Body Building and Sport Specific Training.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Riley_Daye

31 Workouts In 31 Days

At first when you hear the words 31 workouts in 31 days you may assume this feat was accomplished by working out every single day consecutively for a month straight with no break. Surprise, surprise, this was not the case in this scenario.

In actuality, after these 31 workouts in 31 days were completed, there was still a total of 11 days completely free from any type of physical activity during that time period.

Funny thing is, this personal challenge didn't actually develop until mid-month when I looked at my monthly calendar tacked to the wall and tallied how many exercises I had completed up to that point. Using a monthly wall calendar is a very easy, simple way to keep track of a number of important happenings going on in your life, including the days you exercise and workout.

How About Challenging Yourself To 31 Workouts In 31 Days?


For this challenge I determined a workout would need to be at least one hour in duration with some type of elevated heart rate activity. To help maintain inspiration to get the same number of workouts as there were days in the month, diversifying my activities really helped me stick with it. The activities I alternated between were tennis, Bootcamp classes, running, and walking.

Whenever I finished working out, I would write the initial for the exercise in the corner of the box for that particular day. If I went running with my dog in the morning, I wrote a capital R in the box, Bootcamp class at night was a capital B, etc.

I used the same blue marker each time when marking my calendar to help keep everything looking uniform. Plus doing it this way helped make it much easier to glance at the calender and see exactly how my exercise progress was coming along or see if there were large gaps of space in between workouts. Three days in a row was the longest I went without working out.

If you've never used a monthly wall calendar, you may really find them to be a useful tool to help you stick with a particular goal you want to strive to meet. Try one out sometime and see if it helps you stick with healthy living habits like proper nutrition and a regularly occurring exercise routine. You may find that this is one of the best tools to help keep you focused on a goal you are trying to achieve.


Gregory L. Gomez, a LAUSD teacher who's also on journey to develop a healthy life in an effort to lose weight and get in shape. Follow his progress on http://HealthyChoicesInLife.com as he strives to lose nearly 100 pounds by eating healthy and maintaining a consistent exercise routine. Get a FREE monthly Healthy Choices Newsletter along with a Healthy Eating eBook just for stopping by at http://healthychoicesinlife.com/five-simple-healthy-recipes-for-kids.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gregory_L_Gomez

Congruent and Functional Exercise

Exercising congruently and in a functional manner are important since exercising incongruently and in a non functional manner can cause undue stress on your joints, and your body. Excessive exercise or "chronic cardio" can often do a lot of damage on your body. While cardiovascular exercise does have its benefits, doing too much or the wrong kind can cause a lot of wear and tear on your joints and even your adrenals.

Exercising congruently is more applicable and important when doing weight training as training with weights in an incongruent manner can often lead to injury. Weight machines such as MedEx, Nautilus and Hammer Strength when used correctly can virtually eliminate the chance for injury as well as being a much more efficient way to strength train. A full range of motion is not always needed when doing weight training exercises as it places undue strain on your body, particularly your joints and ligaments.


When doing weight training it would benefit one to not do a full range of motion because you are trying to build strength and not push the range of motion or increase the range of motion with an exercise. In physical therapy although when repairing a muscle, joint or ligament it is advisiable to increase the range of motion in a safe gentle manner for proper healing.

Walking is a form of cardiovascular exercise that almost anyone can do, and will not wear out your joints, or your body (in particular your adrenals). Walking can benefit someone even if done for 20-30 minutes a day and can be done daily for up to an hour. Beyond an hour there is not much benefit to walking more. Walking will benefit those that work or live a rather sedentary lifestyle. Being sedentary can often have many detrimental impacts on our physical and mental health.

By walking and hiking one can counter act the effects of a sedentary lifestyle. If someone does a job where they expend a lot of energy and run/walk a lot, I would only walk on days off.

While sprinting and bodyweight exercises aren't optimal they can be used when free weights or weight training machines aren't available. Sprinting can also be done in short spurts 1-3 times a week (not more than 15-20 minutes a time and with breaks) can be very helpful in sports conditioning as well. While bodyweight exercise can help build strength it won't develop as much as one would when using free weights or weight machines. This is because strength gains are only really significant when your muscles are is pushed as much as possible which is difficult to do with bodyweight exercises in an efficient manner.


Check out my other article on functional exercise here: http://jheldt.hubpages.com/hub/Introduction-to-Functional-Exercise

Also check out my paleo and health blog at: http://www.paleoredux.blogspot.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jared_Heldt

What You Need to Know About Running in the Sun

Running on a treadmill or riding on an elliptical in one place can be boring exercise regimen for some people. Why not run outside right? When running outside you can run at your own pace, have variation of hills for resistance, you not staring at a wall, and last but not least you can enjoy the nature of the sun when it is nice outside. A good amount of sunlight exposure can provide good amount of Vitamin D, which promotes healthier skin and stronger bone density. Yet there are some things to consider when running outside, because you can be at risk for certain diseases.

Benefits of Running in Sunlight

Unlike running inside a gym or a recreation center, your body will be able to produce other benefits like the production of vitamin D. According to an author from Environmental Health Perspectives, Nathaniel Mead, vitamin D can be synthesized in the skin through the exposure to UV radiation. With the presence of vitamin D, it can enhance calcium and phosphorus absorption, controlling the flow of calcium into and out of bones to regulate bone-calcium metabolism. Without Vitamin D, your bones will not properly form efficiently and your skin will not receive enough essential nutrition to stay healthy.

Cautions of Running in Sunlight

Like most essential nutrients, there are some side effects that you can have if you have too much exposure to UV radiation. According to United States Environmental Protection Agency, you can be at risk with skin cancer, premature aging, eye damage, and immune system suppression. Keep in mind that having some good that is more than needed doesn't mean that the results will end even better. When running outside be sure to have the proper sunscreen to protect your skin from UV radiation. Do not stay outside longer than you have to. To protect your eyes, make sure you have the proper eye wear in order to prevent certain eye damage like cataracts.

Have Fun

Aside from making the right decisions to stay safe when running outside, be sure that you are having fun when you exercise outside. Running outside is not for everyone, so if you do not like to do it do not do it. You will cause more harm than necessary. If you plan to go run, be sure to have a plan on how you want to accomplish your goals in a safely manner while running in the sunlight. Once you have a plan, pick the best route for you to run and finish your race.


For more information about running or if you are looking for a good running program to start visit http://www.fitnessvehicle.com for the latest topics about running and online consultation for your fitness goals.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Terrell_O._Johnson