Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Travel/fit, Youth/fit | Add Comment
Alwyn Cosgrove has some significant finding from a study on training intensity summarized over on his blog. Basically, high intensity training has the added effect of caloric afterburn vs lower intensity training. You see all sorts of crazy stuff in the gym, but in the end, working your muscles as hard as you can and doing exercises like deadlifts and squats which use lots of different muscles will help you burn fat faster while you are gaining size and strength.
…
So we can extrapolate that an even higher intensity exercise (anaerobic) will result in a higher increased oxygen consumption in non-exercising muscles, for a longer period of time than low intensity exercise. And it’s fairly obvious that the oxygen consumption in the working muscles would show an even bigger effect.
Another reason to focus your fat loss efforts on high intensity exercise.
Obesity Rates Leveling Off In US
Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Children/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Seniors/fit, Travel/fit, Youth/fit | Add Comment
Well, there is some good news/bad news here. The latest study shows that the rates are leveling off, but that men have almost caught up with women and that the fattest people are much fatter than they were back in 2000. The stats for middle aged people are really bad which means that as they age, the problem will probably get worse. Now, if we could just get the rate to go down…
…
About 35.3 percent of women and 33.3 percent of men were considered obese in the 2005-2006 survey, which is statistically about even.
Obesity was most common among adults aged 40 to 59. About 40 percent of men in this age range were obese versus 28 percent of men 20 to 39.
Some 41 percent of women 40 to 59 were obese, compared with 30.5 percent of women in the 20 to 39 age range.
While obesity rates appear to be leveling off, the report shows that Americans on the whole are heavier, and people who are the fattest are much heavier than they were in 1980.
Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Children/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Quick Tips, Seniors/fit, Travel/fit, Youth/fit | Add Comment
Just a quick tip here on Quaker’s new Simple Harvest all natural oatmeal- it’s really good and really natural if you believe the label. Lots of good stuff like oats, barley, flax seed, walnuts and rye. They also have several flavors, so check it out. I bought a box and won’t be going back to regular oatmeal. Since it is microwavable, you can take some packets with you if you are traveling and not only save some money on breakfast, but also eat healthy.
Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Children/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Seniors/fit, Travel/fit, Youth/fit | Add Comment
See how quickly you decided to read this post! We all want everything to be quick and easy and then wonder why nothing seems satisfying. Something is worth what it costs you. That is why a Jaguar is worth more to me than to a movie star who can afford any car(s) he wants. Same deal with training and working out. Very few people ever get the results they want because very few people ever put any real effort into training. I hear it every day- “why aren’t I getting any bigger”? Answer- you aren’t working out very hard.
So when I came across this article over at Men’s Health, I had to pass it on. Great stuff. Here’s the deal, you don’t have to immediately change your whole workout, but you would be smart to read through it and start to implement these principles.
…
“Look at that guy on the leg-extension machine,” he says. “You never isolate muscles like that in the real world. . . .”
”See that kid in front of the mirror doing dumbbell curls? He wants to get big, but he should train to get strong. He’d get double the benefit in half the time. . . .”
”And how about all those people on the treadmills watching TV? Do you think they’re really out of their comfort zones?”
That there’s more designer water in here than sweat gripes him. “I don’t want to sound negative,” Dos Remedios says, “but most people don’t understand training fundamentals or what it means to train hard.“
The guy I’m training right now doesn’t realize it but what I’m doing is getting him comfortable with being outside his comfort zone. Once you are comfortable being uncomfortable, you can do all kinds of things you never thought you could do.
…
“Progressive overload” means spending more time in your discomfort zone. “It’s the most basic of all strength-training principles,” Dos Remedios says, “but it’s the one people understand least. The human body is amazing. The more work you do, the more you will be capable of doing over time.” He’s talking about manipulating loads and volumes during strength and cardio workouts for continuous progress.
Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Seniors/fit, Travel/fit, Youth/fit | Add Comment
Well, I’m back to normal- pretty much. If you skipped a day or 2 at the gym because of Thanksgiving and travel, its time to catch up. I actually went to the gym Thursday night since I was tired of sitting around and wanted to work off some of the food I ate! Since Thursday is my usual leg day, I just went ahead and did them. It was really a great workout and I felt good since I hadn’t done much all day. So here is a good quick leg routine that you can do in about 30-40 minutes.
Start by warming up and then do 4 supersets of machine hack squats and lunges. You are going to do 20 reps of each- so that is 60 total on each superset. Be realistic and pick a weight that you can do for 20 reps, but that still challenges you.
Start with the machine hacks and then go directly to the lunges. After you are done with the lunges, go back and do as many more of the hack squats as you can do. This is a killer leg workout and you can do it in as little as 30 minutes if you don’t rest much between supersets.
Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Children/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Seniors/fit, Youth/fit | Add Comment
I usually advise people I’m training to stay on a pretty strict diet during the week, and give themselves one blowout meal during the weekend or for a special event like birthdays and holidays. Well, tomorrow is one of those holidays (in the US) that qualifies as a blowout day. So here is a little advice- If your system is use to eating small meals throughout the day and you try to stuff 2 plates of food down at one sitting, you are going to be miserable. Believe me I know… Since there is usually no shortage of food at anyone’s Thanksgiving celebration, keep to your eating schedule and eat smaller amounts over the course of the afternoon. Enjoy the feast, but don’t make yourself miserable. Oh yeah, don’t take the leftover pie home with you. You really don’t need it!
Have a great Thanksgiving!
Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Travel/fit, Youth/fit | Add Comment
If you like the movie 300, you should check out the workout they did over at Men’s Health. It is a 300 rep superset that will probably leave you gasping for air. I don’t think it is a replacement for a more ordinary weight training routine, but I do think it would be a great workout to insert on one of your off days or light days.
There is a real movement in the fitness field toward workouts like this. They do have the benefit of intensity and thus calorie burning over more traditional weight lifting. Plus, a lot of them can be done at home or with a minimum of equipment. If it works for the Spartans…
Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Children/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Seniors/fit, Travel/fit, Youth/fit | Add Comment
No doubt, jumping rope is one of the best calorie burning and cardio exercises you can do. So why don’t more people do it? Simple- it requires a level of coordination and fitness that most people don’t have. So when I came across JumpSnap over at Lift, I was intrigued. I actually think it would work for a lot of people and maybe get them to the point where they can jump a real rope. Really… anything to get people to do something! Kinda pricey at 60.00 but still, if it actually gets people to exercise, I’m all for it.
…
JumpSnap loses the rope, leaving two handles with electronic chips and an LCD screen that estimate calories burned, while providing a timer and audible workout summary. It even makes a snapping sound with each rotation so you don’t feel entirely silly…
In the world of high intensity, ultra-portable exercise, jumping rope has to be at the top of the list. You can burn up to 600 calories/hour and do it almost anywhere. Now with the JumpSnap, you don’t even need a tall ceiling. Still, if you can use a real rope, you won’t look so silly. If anyone buys one, please let me know how you like it and how well it works.
Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Children/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Quick Tips, Seniors/fit, Travel/fit, Youth/fit | Add Comment
Just 2 quick ways to help you avoid overeating. First, for lunch and dinner, always eat a salad with low calorie dressing before the main part of your meal. Salad will help you feel full and has a lot of important nutrients that you need anyways. If you are like most people and jump right to the main part of your meal, you will always eat more than you need.
Second, pick stuff that you have to chew. Studies have shown that chewing helps slow your eating down and actually makes you feel more satisfied with what you ate. With most fast food being soft and pretty much predigested, it is important to skip that temptation and get something you actually have to eat instead of just swallow. So take things like baby carrots, apples and other high fiber foods along with you in a bag or cooler. That way, you can do what you mom always told you not to do- “spoil your lunch or dinner”.
Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, General Fitness, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Travel/fit, Youth/fit | Add Comment
When it comes to picking one “best exercise”, you will be hard pressed to beat deadlifts. Squats are a close second and maybe number 1 depending on your body type and preference. Either way, it is important to understand why these 2 exercises are so important in developing strength and size. The first reason is simply that they are the 2 exercises that allow you to lift very heavy weight relative to your size and body weight. Deadlifts and squats do need to be done properly to avoid too much stress on the lower back, but done right, they really work. The key is to find someone who knows what they are doing and get them to coach you on how to do them properly. Basically, you need to start out with pretty light weight so that you gradually build up the core muscles you need for these exercises. Jumping right in and throwing on a lot of weight is a recipe for injury. But done properly and progressively, you will strengthen you back muscles and find your strength going up dramatically. As this happens, all the rest of your body will grow as well since both exercises require a lot of other muscle groups besides back and leg muscles.
One good example of this is how well both work the abs. Squatting heavy requires a lot of ab strength because you have to hold the weight upright on your shoulders. Your back and abs work together to do this. So as the weight you are squatting increases, your abs will need to be proportionately stronger as well. The same holds true for deadlifts. To illustrate this, watch someone who is deadlifting a pretty decent amount of weight and if they are wearing a tanktop and shorts, you will see dramatically how many muscle groups are involved and how hard they are working.
So if you aren’t doing these 2 great exercises, plan on adding them to you weekly routine and you will see some great gains. Next week I will try to have some pictures of proper deadlifting technique for you…
