You can Learn a lot from Athletes

There is a long-standing stereotype that athletes are not so quick in the intelligence department. Well, there’s a lot you can learn from athletes, especially when it comes to your fitness goals.

The way athletes train completely go against what is preached as good “fitness” methods in commercial magazines.

Let’s go with the idea that the way to lose fat is by running, biking, or doing other forms of steady-rate cardio continuously for hours most days of the week. Ok, so some fitness magazines say you should do cardio for as little as 45 minutes. But how can you fit in both cardio and strength training (which is crucial for weight loss) when 45 minutes of your workout session is gone?

Now let’s look at a workout for an athlete. Sure, there were a few times we, as soccer players, went on 30 minute, 45 minute runs at a steady pace, but those were reserved for recovery days. To get into shape, especially during preseason, we focused on short, intense bouts of work, followed by predetermined times of rest.

In other words, what got us into shape was interval style workouts.

I’ve written about this before, but I wanted to focus on it again. As you prepare to undertake a new fitness program, don’t get sucked into programs that prescribe hours upon hours of cardio each week. Not only are those kind of workouts ineffective for most people, they pave the way for overuse injury, and, frankly, boredom.

What is an interval training workout? It’s one where you basically work at a high intensity for a period of time, followed by working (or resting) for a period of time. And then you repeat the cycle.

Here’s an example interval training workout on a treadmill for a beginner:

Total time: 30 mins.

Minutes 1-3: warmup at easy pace, enough to get your heartrate going

3-4: increase the speed by 0.5 mph

4-6: decrease the speed by 0.5 mph

6-7: increase the speed and incline by 0.5 mph

7-9: decrease the speed by 0.5, leave the incline as is

9-10: increase the speed and incline by 0.5

10-12: decrease both speed and incline by 0.5

12-13: increase speed and incline by 1.0

13-15: decrease speed and incline by 1.0

15-16: increase speed and incline by 1.0

16-18: decrease speed only by 1.0

18-19: increase speed by 1.0

19-21: decrease speed and incline by 1.0

21-22: increase speed by 0.5

22-24: decrease speed by 0.5

24-25: increase speed and incline by 0.5

25-27: decrease speed and incline by 0.5

27-30: cool down at an easy pace

Eventually you would work up to basically sprinting on a treadmill (or outside) followed by periods of light jogging.

Why should you train this way? There’s a time and a place for steady cardio training. However, if you want to burn serious calories and improve your overall fitness quickly, interval training is for you. You accomplish a lot more in 30 minutes training this way than you would running or walking at the same pace for the whole time. You also become less bored since you’re constantly switching up what you’re doing.

The same applies to strength training, which I’ll talk about in another post.

So, if you’re just starting out, or are a seasoned gym rat, start the New Year off right with interval training.

My Problem with Fitness Magazines

I like to ask people where they get their fitness and health information. Let’s say that’s a hobby of mine.

What do you think is the most common answer?

Fitness magazines, of course. Especially Shape, Self, Muscle and Fitness, and Fitness.

Now, my problem isn’t with the magazines themselves. Sometimes there’s good information in there, especially good recipes .

My problem is with the images.

Flip through one of those magazines, and tell me what you see. I see a bunch of unrealistic bodies and ideas of beauty. It’s true that mainstream media is starting to show more body types and shapes as being healthy. But it doesn’t mean that these images are being shown as desirable. Nor does it mean that these images are diverse.

For example, I looked at about a year’s worth of covers of Shape magazine, and all the covers featured white women, who all had similar body types. No diversity at all. Well, they had different hair colors. Maybe that’s their idea of diversity?

Anyway, not everyone can identify with those images. Yet when people see those images in fitness magazines, they want to end up looking like them.

They can’t, and they won’t look like them. But people try the workout plans, buy the magazines, order the products in the advertisements with the idea that they will magically lose weight, change their bodies, and look as beautiful as the women (or men) they see in the pictures. And when it doesn’t happen, guess what…they quit. They get frustrated. You get frustrated.

But then next month, you see another magazine featuring a program promising a loss of 30 pounds without dieting or exercising, without changing your behaviors to create a healthy lifestyle. So you buy the magazine with renewed hopes that this time you’ll look like the model posing next to those words.

The goal shouldn’t be to look like the models. It should be to adopt a healthy lifestyle for the good of your health, not for what you’ll look like.

This is especially difficult for minorities to deal with. On a subconscious level, the lack of diverse images feeds into the insecurity some minorities feel about their own beauty. This isn’t a new phenomenon; the dominance of European beauty standards has long plagued minorities and influenced how minorities feel about their own features and themselves. The images found in fitness magazines are images of beauty, and the lack of diversity in fitness magazines feed into what is essentially self-hate.

So there’s my rant. I could go on about how reading fitness magazines while working out can be counterproductive and even depressing, or how fitness magazines spread misinformation issue after issue (which makes it hard to fight against the myths through education–just because you read it in a magazine doesn’t make it true).

As usual, leave your comments. I welcome your rants (or raves, just express yourself).

Squats: Should I do them?

One of the first movements I teach my new clients is the squat. It’s probably one of the most important moves people should master. Too many people improperly perform squats at the gym, which lead to injury.

When I ask my new client if they perform squats, I usually hear “I don’t because they hurt my knees.”

My response is: “Show me how you do a squat.”

So they proceed, and manage to do it incorrectly. “No wonder your knees hurt, you’re doing them incorrectly!”

If this sounds like you, don’t feel bad. Most people don’t know how to correctly do a squat; they learn from mimicking what they see at the gym.

If your knees hurt during squatting, watch your form. Your knees should not cross the plane of your toes, meaning that when you look down, you shouldn’t see your knees going past the top of your toes.

This is the most common problem I see. When your knees go past your toes, you stress the ligaments in your knee. What’s the result? Knee pain!

Squats themselves are not dangerous to knees and should be done by any healthy exerciser. Remember to perfect your form by using your bodyweight; only add weight once you have learned how to control your body weight.

Why should you do squats? Because the squat is an effective, total body exercise, when done properly. Squats work not only your quads, but the oh-so neglected hamstrings and lower back, and your core.

If you don’t know how to perform a squat properly, enlist the help of a fitness professional. Some of the videos on YouTube teach the wrong thing, even though there are a few that correctly demonstrate this exercise.

The Gym Culture

Since I can’t really work out like I was this summer right now, I’ve been doing a lot of research and thinking. While I was at work, I was thinking about what makes gyms different.

Every gym pretty much has the same basic equipment–treadmills, ellipticals, rowers, bikes, stair climbers, and a number of weight-lifting machines–yet every gym has a different vibe.

You have gyms that appeal to bodybuilders, others for women, and some for hardcore weekend warriors and former athletes.

What characterizes gyms that are for average people who just want to stay in shape? What if you live in an area only with gyms whose culture doesn’t suit you? Wouldn’t that be discouraging to people who want to introduce healthy habits into their lives?

I was in class yesterday, listening to people give presentations. This one group spoke about holding a focus group with people who haven’t used our university’s fitness facilities, and one of the reasons given was intimidation. One person had a bad experience at a gym. He asked one of the gym’s employees a question and they laughed at him, and other people acted like he was dumb, so that discouraged him from going back to gyms.

As health professionals, it’s our job to create a culture that is welcoming to all people, especially beginners and people who absolutely need to make healthy changes in their lives. The trick is finding out how that can be done, especially when people hold myths about gyms in their minds.

For example, some people believe you have to already be in shape to work out at a gym. People say “I’m too fat to work out” or “I don’t have any ‘gym’ clothes to wear to work out.” The perceived gym culture can be discouraging to the very people we want to help.

It’s hard to change perceptions, especially if they’ve been around for a long time, but it’s not impossible. The gym culture should be one of health and progress, not of discouragement and intimidation.

What can you do?

You can debunk myths your friends or family members give as excuses to not work out. You can be helpful, if you know yourself the correct answer, when someone asks a question.

You can also remember to leave your ego at the door when you go into a gym. We all started at the beginning at some point

Gotta start thinking about my thesis

So this post is going to be more academically-oriented (sorry, no fitness tips today).

I’m thinking about my master’s thesis, and it lead me to explore an interesting idea.

Have you ever wondering what role culture and social norms play in our approach to physical activity?

This may seem random, but the reason why I’m thinking about this is because after reviewing the rates of physical activity among black adult women, I wanted to know why they are so low when compared to white women.This is especially interesting because we all know that black women are at a higher risk for heart disease, diabetes, and obesity, yet, despite this knowledge, black women don’t exercise enough.

Culture has a strong influence on what we think about exercise. For example, in the black culture, having a badonkadonk (big butt) is prized and being a little thick is desirous. It’s reflected in male conversation, in popular music, and in black media. That’s not really true in the white community.

Anyway, in general, this is what my thesis is going to be about. How do black women view fitness? How can we, as health professionals, design programs and campaigns that are culturally sensitive? We can’t target black women the same way we target white women to work out. Sure, there are other reasons why black women, and women in general, have lower rates of physical activity, such as lack of time due to family and work responibilities. However, I feel that this is an area of research that is overlooked, which is why this will probably be the topic of my thesis.

At the gym, don’t have much time…What do I do?

It’s been about 2 months since the accident and I’m just getting back into training like I was before. I’m up to 7 pullups, so I’m getting my strength back. I was also able to do pullups while hanging upside down this weekend, which was fun!

Today I planned on getting a full hour working out before my 8pm class. That didn’t happen. I remembered I had to return my overdue library books before I made my way to school, which is a 25-30 minute ride from my house. So I didn’t get to school in time to get an hour workout and have time to eat before class.

How many times does this happen to you? You plan to workout for a certain amount of time, you have your workout ready to go, gear on, music selected, and you remember you have an errand (or 2,3,4…) to do, which essentially cuts your workout time in half. Do you know what to do to get a full-body workout for strength and cardio in the shortest amount of time?

I had to come up with a workout on the spot that worked on my cardio, strength, and overall fitness level for 30 minutes. Here’s what I did:

1 mile warmup on a bike (3:15)

500m row (2:19)

3 sets of deadlifts (1 set of 10 at 95#, 2 sets of 8 at 115# (my bodyweight))

1 set of pullups to failure

2 sets of 5 clean and jerk (45#)

500m row (2:23–cool down)

Done.

This took less than 30 minutes.

Why did I pick the exercises I picked?

What am I trying to show you with this?

When you’re in the gym with little time to waste, make your workout effective by selecting full-body exercises. For example, I picked the deadlift because it targets the core, lower back, quads, hamstrings, basically your entire posterior chain (which is often neglected in training). I used the rower rather than another machine because it, too, is a full-body workout. It requires coordination, lower body, core, and upper body strength.

Pullups are also a full-body exercise, even though most people believe it’s an exercise for upper body strength only. Not true. The power from a pullup comes from your core, not your arms (unless you’re doing a chin-up with the palms facing towards you, which engages your biceps more).

So you get the point.

When you’re pressed for time, don’t waste precious minutes doing simple, single-joint exercises (unless you’re bodybuilding).

How not to let your Fitness Efforts Sink with the Economy

I don’t need to remind everyone about the state of the American global economy.

I’m sure you all have felt the effort somehow, either at the pumps, in your pockets, or even through your home.

Don’t let the effects show up in your belly, butt, thighs, wherever.

How can you do that, especially since in times like this one of the first things to go are the gym and fitness center memberships?

Well, if it’s possible, rearrange your budget to include your gym, and instead take out those 3 lattes you get every single day. Or maybe the daily fast food excursions could get the boot.

But what if you have to let that membership go and there is no cheaper alternative, such as no local YMCAs or other community gyms? (Remember, the YMCA and community gyms are highly viable options; they may not be as flashy as those big commercial gyms, but you don’t chose your gym based on flash, right?)

If you don’t have a gym, that is not an excuse to let your fitness progress lapse or to throw away those fitness goals.

In case that was not clear, I will repeat myself. Not having a gym to go to is not an excuse to let your fitness progress lapse or to throw away those fitness goals. Nor does it excuse you from starting a new fitness program!

So what can you do?

Well, the last time I checked, walking is free. So is running.

So many people overlook the value of walking. They say, “Jay, I walk everyday! I walk to the bathroom, to the kitchen, to my car, to the boss’ office, to the vending machine, blah blah blah!”

Yeah, but what are you doing for the other 23.5 hours in the day when you aren’t walking to such places?

So try walking around your neighborhood, or around the community where you work. Walk upright, with a decent pace, and switch up the pace throughout your walk. Walk up and down hills. Challenge yourself and work your way up to jogging, then running.

If you choose a walk that passes a park, guess what you now have? An instant outdoor gym! And for free!

Monkey bars can act as pullup bars, and if you swing from them, you can get a killer core workout.

You can easily do dips and pushups on park benches.

Jumping jacks are free, too. And a jump rope isn’t expensive, yet is an extremely effective fat-loss and conditioning tool.

You can do plenty of burpees in a park!

But what if it’s raining? Again, a jump rope can come in handy, if your ceilings are high enough and if no one lives under you. If you have stairs in your house, run sets of stairs. Play with your kids.

Buy a pack of inexpensive exercise tubes! You can do just about anything with tubes that you do with machines or free weights.

There are endless possibilities, but my point is clear: a bad economy is not an acceptable excuse for being a slacker. Period.

Any more tips for staying fit in this economy?

No Light Weights Please

In the Washington Post yesterday there was an article featuring women and kettlebells. I like how a mainstream newspaper such as the Post is spreading the word about this awesome fitness tool.

I just wish a mainstream media would talk about women tossing around heavy weight, and not getting big! This article talks about women lifting up to 25 lbs, and last year, Jackie Warner (from the show Workout) talked about women starting with 9 lbs and only using up to 18 lbs.

Really?

You wouldn’t find athletes lifting light weights. You won’t look like an athlete by lifting light. Can’t “tone” what you can’t have, and you have to build some muscle before you can get that lean, athletic look.

We want to build muscle. More muscle burns more calories. More calories burned equals more weight lost.

See the connection?

Really boost your workout program by changing up how much you lift and the repetition range. There are times when light weights are warranted, especially if you are a true beginner and are just learning the movements of the exercises. However, after about 3 weeks, which is the time it takes for your body to adapt to a new movement, it’s time to add more weight.

You won’t get bulky unless you’re *ahem* supplementing your activities. Or taking an extremely disciplined approach to become a natural bodybuilder. But I doubt any of you are doing that.

When are we going to accept that for women, heavy weight does not equal bulky bodies?

Just a sample of what I’m doing

I think it’s time to post another workout for you all to try, since the last one I posted was a long time ago.

The following workout is the first in my new Cardio Circuit series, something use on a few clients of mine with great results.This is geared towards people who want to lose fat and improve their overall fitness levels.

Scale this workout to your own abilities. If you can’t run, then walk. Choose a speed and intensity on the machines that will make you work at about 7-8 on a scale of 1-10.

Warm-up for 5 minutes before working out!

So here it is: The Workout

5 minutes biking (pick a program where there are hills; go as fast as you can on the valleys and pick a resistance where you go between 90-100 rpms on the hills)

1 min pushups (or to failure; feel free to drop to your knees or do them on a wall if you cannot do them without compromising form)

5 min run (on an incline)

1 min planks

5 min elliptical

1 min jumping jacks

5 min run (on an incline)

1 min bridges

5 min bike (same as above)

1 min crunches

Make sure you cool down!

If you don’t know what any of the exercises are, ask me! Hit me up in the comments. More workouts coming soon…stay tuned.

Wanna lose 20 pounds fast?

…then cut off one of your legs!

The reality is that you cannot safely lose 20 pounds fast, at least not 20 pounds of fat, which is the only thing one should want to lose in a weight-loss program.

Safe and healthy weight loss is about 1-2 pounds a week. That’s it.

Well, what about all those people who claim to lose 21 pounds in 21 days, or other nonsense like that, Jay?

People who use such programs probably lose weight, but then they probably put it right back on. Why? Because they didn’t lose fat, they lost water and muscle. So as soon as they start eating again, the weight comes right back.

Detox programs and other “lose weight fast” programs are designed to put your body into starvation mode. Most people think that if they put their bodies into that mode that the body will burn fat.

Surprise! The body doesn’t quite work that way.

The body will cannibalize the entities that take the most fuel to maintain, which are muscles. It takes barely any calories to maintain fat, but a great amount to maintain muscles. Therefore, your body will leave your fat alone and destroy what you’re actually trying to build. Your metabolism will also slow since you have less muscle mass to keep your metabolism high and rolling.

You may lose weight, but your body composition will not improve. And remember, we’re after improving your body composition, not just losing weight.

So quit falling for those programs and products that make ridiculous claims that you can lose weight quickly. Those magical diets and pills are designed to fail you.

Suck it up, do the work. Anything worth having is worth working hard for. So put forth the effort and lose the weight properly through a well-designed, balanced diet and exercise program. It will be worth it!