Hello, Tonight I would like to address other methods that you can do to progress your workouts and maximize your fitness level. This will be a two part post with the second part coming tomorrow.
Does your gym have a pool that you can utilize? If so why not take your workout to a new level and go for a swim. Do laps, go to the edge of the pool and do ab lifts with the water as resistance, do calf lifts on one foot, put your arms up on a pool side and do kicks till you feel the burn, try walking back and forth through the water from side to side, rotate your arms through the water like you were swinging a bat, do squat jumps. If you own your own pool visit your local pool dealer and check out all the water dumbbells and exercise apparatus that has come on the scene for fitness in the pool, learn different swimming strokes and activate different muscle positions. Really, the options are endless. If you have a partner in the water play catch with a beach ball, play some water volleyball. Well you get my point. If a pool workout interests you email me and I will provide you many more exercises you can do. You might be surprised to see how much different exercises there really are.
Does your gym have a raquetball or tennis court. If it does go play a game with your partner or friend. Most gyms even have a list for single players looking to play a game with other singles. You will take your workout to a new level, activiate different muscles, and have a really great time. You brain may think it is getting a day off from the gym but you will be exercising all the same. Racquet sports provide a killer cardio workout.
Does your gym have an indoor or outdoor track? If it does why not try skipping the cardio workout and doing 30 seconds sprints followed by a minute of walking and do it again. try to achieve a mile or two. Again, the goal is to activate other muscles at a different range then they are currently being trained. As well as stem boredom in the regular workout.
Do not under estimate a simple walking workout for your cardio. A simple formula states that for ever 1/2 hour of jogging you can do you should be able to 1 hour of walking (reaping the same caloric expenditure). Another simple formula states that for every 2000 steps you take (via a pedometer) you will burn 100 calories. maybe you have heard it before about the virtues of taking 10,000 steps a day. Well that is great science because you will burn 500 calories extra a day amounting to 3,500 calories lost per week(if you do it every day - that is a loss of 1 1/4 pounds of fat off of your body per week). Many factors play into this but I hope you get the simplified point I am trying to make here.
As a Personal Trainer I urge my clients to do at least one of the things above at least once every few weeks. I want my clients to see that exercise is a love of life not necessarily sweating in a cold gym setting. Go out there folks and enjoy the scenery during a walk, cool off in the pool while getting fit, do some sprints in the gym or at the local high school track, go get competitive and experience some racquet sports. Get others involved as well. A lot of people would never think of working out at the gym but they would love to play some tennis etc. Enlist them in your goals for a fitter, healthier life.
Above all take at least one of these methods I listed above and pledge to do at least one per month instead of your daily workout. Think of it as a reward that rewards you with better fitness and a more positive experience towards working out.
Tommorrow I will address other training methods that can be incorporated in a gym setting.
As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. My rates are $75.00 per hour for in-person training and $25.00 per hour for email personal training. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.
Regards,
Eddie Camaroto CPT
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4 comments:
Another way to burn a few calories is - While at work, take the LONG way when walking to any destination in your building. Oh and dont forget to take the stairs!, Rose
I will try walking more and stop with the taking the short cuts.
Also, what do you think about set of push-ups through out the day, will it really do anything for me.
I am in dress cloths, so I wont expend enough energy to break a sweat?
Thank you
Brian
Rose, excellent point. We should all be taking the stairs whenever we can, parking farther away from our destination when we can, walking to the store if it is close, and getting those 10,000 steps a day (remember 2,000 steps burns roughly 100 calories). Thank you for the tips.
Eddie
Brian, Try to make small changes to your fitness daily instead of making all the changes at once - you will be more likely to stick to them. Start parking your truck a little farther away at work and only take stairs whenever you can. You will be burning more calories and be getting healthier at the same time.
As for your question about doing push-ups during the day - I would say that you will get more benefit from taking the time you would have for those push-ups and do stretching exercises. If you have a desk job you will most likely have tight hip flexors, shortened calf muscles, tight pecs, tight lats, tight hamstrings, and tight traps. All those tight muscles will have a negative effect on your gym time. I will be writing about flexibility in a future post but for now let me just say that flexibility is one of the most important things you can do for your health. If there are any muscles you would like to stretch just post your questions and I will send you what stretches will accomplish your goals.
If I remember your exercise routine correctly you already have some challenging push-up exercises and you really want to give those pecs some rest between workouts. Your muscles need to grow and rest to reach their fullest potential. So doing more push-ups could actually stall your muscle growth (over-training - also something I will be addressing in a future post).
Excellent question Brian.
Eddie
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