Month: June 2015

So have you got the guts?

Are you exercising? Do you have a goal? You do? That’s great! Now, how about a plan? You don’t have a plan? If you don’t have a plan, how do you plan to achieve your goal? You could go day to day and hope that you will eventually reach your goal but having  a plan will help you in achieving that goal.

Details

Planning out what you need to do to realize your goal is a great way to first off see if it’s achievable. If it’s not a realistic goal, most times that will come out during planning. Planning also helps in sticking to what it is you need to do to reach that goal. It’s something you can put on your calendar, into your schedule that you feel you need to do. Seeing it written down is a great way to make it part of your day.

If you have a goal of running a race, let’s say a 5km race, and you don’t plan out your training it can be really hard to set a target for that race and to know if it’s a realistic target. Putting together a training plan will help you on race day to have a realistic goal, an achievable goal. Planning can also help in preventing injuries from happening. Planning out your training, and sticking to it, allows you to train realistically and not overtax the body during training or during the event.

Making the time

Not having a plan makes it easier to miss training. It’s easy to find something to occupy that time you would have used for training. Let’s face it, we are all busy and will find things to occupy our time. By scheduling your training or gym time in your calendar allows you to visualize that event. It’s something you can see, something that is there reminding you what you should be doing. It also helps you in planning your day and making time for working out. It helps you in putting together your day setting aside time not only for working out but also other things you need to get done. This also helps in dealing with guilt that you might be taking too much time for yourself and not other things.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the things we have to do every day. Putting these things into a schedule, or a calendar allows you to get a handle on them and realize that you can get them done and still get in a workout, even if it’s only a half hour. But what usually happens is we feel that there is too much to do and our workout gets put aside.

Also remember that we should be taking the time to work out. Working out has many benefits that impact multiple aspects of our lives that it should be given the priority it deserves.

Back to it

Ok, back to planning. Set a goal. Could be a short term goal or a long term goal. Plan what it is you need to do to reach that goal, and be realistic about it. If you aren’t sure how to plan for the goal consult an expert in that area, or a personal trainer. Put your plan into your calendar. Take each day as a singular day and stick to your plan. Each day then becomes a week, and the weeks become a month.

When you reach the end of the first month you can then look back and reflect in awe at your progression. Another benefit of having a plan is the motivation it brings with it. I remember training for a 10k race. My first 10k race was one that didn’t have any planning. I trained in the sense of exercising each week but nothing specific towards my goal. This time I put together a schedule. A 16 week period of training, increasing mileage each week. Incorporating runs longer than 10k but also including interval training. The result was I ran a 10k about 6 minutes quicker than the one where I had no plan.

That’s one example.

For everyone

Don’t feel that you have to participate in an event to have a plan. All you need is a goal and you should have a goal. Lose 10lbs, add 10lbs of muscle, increase vertical leap, or run a sub 50 minute 10k. If you don’t have a goal, you are losing the opportunity to experience the motivation that comes with reaching that goal. Without a goal, you increase the chance of losing interest and potentially stop working out. I see it all the time. People working out for the sake of working out. They have no goal and because of this they aren’t measuring their progress. Boredom sets in and because of the perceived lack of results they stop working out.

Set the goal. Plan it. Then do it. And when you achieve it, celebrate it. You deserve it.

Yours in health,

Darryl

 

Feet up, feet down.

Recently I was asked what can be done to improve cardio well being. I explained that to improve cardio, you need to work intensely. Keeping yourself in that moderate to light moderate range just won’t improve cardio fitness. You need to push yourself to improve both aerobic and anaerobic health.

So what exercises can you do? Quite a few actually. Simple things like burpees, jump squats, mountain climbers, etc. But, all of these exercises can be compromised and not provide the benefit they are setup to be.

Another option

Other than tying someone to a treadmill in such a way that they cannot stop, what exercise can be done that almost has the same effect? Skipping!

Skipping is tough. It’s a great exercise to build cardio fitness. And, you can’t help but jump when that rope comes down to where your feet are. Of course you can always stop skipping after a few repetitions but if done properly, and with determination, skipping almost forces you to keep exercising as the rope goes around and around.

And there are other benefits than improving cardio fitness. The legs get a good workout, and so does the upper body, especially the arms and shoulders from moving the rope around. Also, your core gets a great workout from stabilizing your body as you skip.

Although a great exercise, skipping can be boring. But, there are different ways you can skip. Let’s look at a few options for our skipping routine:

• The basic – I think everyone has done this one at one point in their life. The rope rotates forward and you jump with both feet at the same time. Round and round the rope goes. Straight forward isn’t it.
• The lateral – Move side to side when jumping rope. You don’t have to move too much, 15 cm’s should be enough.
• The reverse – Swing the rope backwards. Different, but effective.
• The alternator – Alternate the foot that lands from one to the other, keeping the opposite foot up. Switch from one foot to the other.
• The double – Jump high enough that you can swing the rope by twice before landing. Tough! You probably won’t be able to do this one for as long as the others, but give it a shot if you have been skipping for a while now. Something different.

 

Mixing it

If you find any exercise boring, you won’t do it. Why would you? Exercising should be engaging, not something that turns you off from doing it. The five options above should help in keeping skipping engaging and help you get on your way to having awesome cardio!

Remember, skipping just isn’t for kids. Everyone can enjoy in its fun!

Yours in health,

Darryl

 

ticking away…

Free time is in short supply these days it seems. Various commitments and usually it’s our health that ends up taking the back seat. I have written posts on what we can do in a shorter amount of time (tabata interval training) but this may not be for everyone, or is not the only training you would like to do.

So what can be done if you don’t have that much time but want to do some resistance training? In this post I’m going to cover what can be done to target a large amount of muscles in a shorter period of time. This might just help you get in that workout when you are crunched for time. Which, might be all the time.

Start

Let’s take a look at what exercises we can do that will target a large part of the body:

• Clean and jerk – If you are a beginner to working out take a pass on this one. Also, I would recommend getting some coaching on this exercise as it is a complicated exercise. Also, go light. You don’t need a lot of weight for this exercise to be effective. The clean and jerk will target your quads, hamstrings, calf, glutes, abs, shoulders, biceps, triceps and others. It’s also an exercise that would be classified as a full range exercise allowing you to go through a full range squat. But technique is important to avoid injury. Be sure you know what you are doing before attempting.
• Pull Ups – Very effective for targeting the back muscles, ab muscles, bicep muscles, forearm muscles. Tough to do, but if you can only do a few, do them. You will get better.
• Squats – Great leg worker? Yes, but great core worker too! We can work our core without having to work it directly doing exercises that recruit the core for stabilizing purposes. Want to try something different? Try a front squat. Place the bar across the shoulders for a more challenging squat that places more stress on the quads than the hamstrings. Also, you will find the core engaging more, at least you should. Be ready to use less weight though.

No longer the enemy

Now, who cares if you have only 20 minutes to work out. With these exercises you now have options to get that workout in. Watch for a future article focusing more on body weight to tackle the same problem.

You no longer have to feel guilty.

Yours in health,

Darryl