Fit Your Life Now

I have been saying this for years now, but Dave Lipson of 365 DAYS OF SQUATTING explains it better than I ever could.

“Many people talk about training ‘the core’ as if it is some ancillary supplement to your ‘meat and potatoes’ training. Those of us who understand anatomy of functional movement recognize that everything is core. Moving large loads, long distances quickly requires multi- joint, proximal to distal motor recruitment patterns. Power generated from the center is translated outward to produce movement. It is called our kinetic chain, and the stronger your chain, the greater your ability to create power. I like to use this comparison to illustrate this. Picture a tennis racket. You swing the racket and force is translated through the handle, up a light and rigid graphite shaft and finally accelerates the head with a big whoosh! Now picture that same swing except the shaft of the racket is made of a wet sponge and not rigid graphite. Did you loose the whoosh? You betcha! Do you think the ball you hit was gonna go very far?…Hell no! Why?…Because all the force you created was absorbed and not translated. So what’s the point? The core is not something..it is everything with regard to your training and ability to perform athletically. During this series of lectures I will discuss ways to turn your core into that light rigid shaft.”

I have been telling my clients for years that just 15 minutes of interval training is worth significantly more to your health than an hour of a constant, moderate pace, but now here’s an article and a number to back it up.

3 times! That’s right you will burn triple the calories with intervals than you will with a constant pace during your cardio.

You can read more HERE

Obviously, both methods have their uses. An hour of constant moderate pace is obviously going to go a long way towards improving the endurance of your heart and lungs, and especially your legs. But if we’re talking strictly about efficient use of time for calorie burning, intervals are the way to go.

In my own workouts, I try to do both, and alternate between the two. Every other time I focus on endurance, and every other time I do high intensity intervals.

Take THIS LINK to an amazing fitness website. The Cross Fit program is designed for practical strength and power building, and recruits the whole body together to maximize fat-burning, as well as muscle gains.

Police departments, Fire departments, military special ops, and martial artists all over the world subscribe to this school of fitness philosophy. Generally speaking, the people in the groups I just listed tend to be in great physical shape. If it works for them, it can work for you too.

Don’t be intimidated. This program works for everyone. Even the injured or undertrained. You may have to modify it and/or start small, but it’s worth doing. As a trainer I build routines for my clients based on similar principles. Contact me, and I can show you how to apply these ideas safely and effectively.

If you’re like most people I see in the gym, you may be doing only half a workout while you’re there.

I hate to make gender-based generalizations, but I often see many men hit lots of weights/resistance machines and then take off without putting in one second of cardio time…

And ladies, I see many of you spend an hour or more on an elyptical/treadmill/stair-mill and leave without so much as looking at a dumbbell.

If you’re only doing one or the other, you’re not maximizing your calorie burn. Guys, many of you may be finding that your chest and arms are starting to pop out of your shirts, but that belly just isn’t going anywhere. And ladies you won’t be gaining any sexy toning in your arms at all, and you might find that your belly isn’t going anywhere either, and unlike most of the men you’ve also got the hips and thighs to contend with.

If weight-loss and/or toning specifically are among your goals, we need both schools of gym-thought to come together. A high-intensity blending of strength and cardio, called circuit training is just what the doctor ordered. Try this little gem of a quickie:

2-5 minute light/moderate pace on TREADMILL to warm-up
TREADMILL 30 seconds of a good, all-out running pace. RUN! It’s only 30 seconds.
Hop off the treadmill and immediately do Push-ups x 10
Repeat 3x, NO rest in between.

Rest 2 minutes.

Repeat that whole sequence 2x

I guarantee you that even the big guys that bench-press 250 lbs and ladies who jog for an hour on the treadmill will be gassed by this routine. This is just one mini-circuit, one small taste of the kinds of workouts I throw at my clients everyday.