Tag Archives: Working Out

“I’m Going to get in Shape This Year”

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5 Tips to Help You Achieve Your “I’m going to get in shape this year” Goal

1.  Leave your cell phone in the car! If you can text, talk or Facebook, you are not working out!

2.  The machines are not resting stations. You are not at the gym to sit down or talk on your phone.  You should be in consent movement from the time you enter the gym until you get in your car to drive home.  You don’t need to rest in-between sets.  I rest about 10 to 15 seconds between sets, just enough time to change the weight or get a sip of water.  You are supposed to be tired and out of breath…this is a good thing.

3.  Stop doing the weighted ab machine!  You know the one I’m talking about.  You sit down, grab the handles and start crunching like a crazy person.  This is NOT going to help you lose weight or give you “abs”.  The ONLY way to see those elusive abdominal muscles is to lose the layers of fat they are hiding behind.

4.  Stop “walking” on the treadmill!  Walking is not exercise, if it was we wouldn’t be having this conversation and we would all be fit and healthy.  RUN!!!  I’m not saying you have to run fast or far, but you do have to run….and yes, I know it’s hard.

5.  Hire a trainer!  Not some joker with an online certificate from Bob’s Personal Training Certification.  A real trainer who knows what they are doing.  Find a training that looks like you want to look.  If he or she is not in AMAZING shape do NOT hire them.  As someone who helps people with their health and fitness I feel like it is my responsibility to be a great shape.  My body is my business card and I feel like I owe it to the people who trust me with the fitness to take my personal fitness seriously.

Bonus Tip: Train Hard, Eat Clean and Have Fun!!!

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Strength Training an Anti-Aging Essential!

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While people typically lose 30% of their muscle strength between the ages of 50 and 70 years, it is critically important to maintain muscle strength as we age, to preserve mobility and independent living. Frank Mayer, from the University of Potsdam (Germany), and colleagues reviewed recently published studies about strength (resistance) training in elderly persons, and which intensities of exercise are useful and possible in persons older than 60 years. The team found that regular strength (resistance) training increased muscle strength, reduced muscular atrophy, and that tendons and bones adapt too. These successes in turn had a preventive effect in terms of avoiding falls and injuries. Greater intensities of training yielded greater effects than moderate and low intensities. In order to increase muscle mass, an intensity of 60-85% of the one-repetition-maximum is required. In order to increase rapidly available muscle force, higher intensities (greater than 85%) are required. The optimum amount of exercise for healthy elderly persons is 3 to 4 training units per week. The researchers urge that: “Progressive strength training in the elderly is efficient, even with higher intensities, to reduce sarcopenia, and to retain motor function.”

To read the full article:  Deutsches Aerzteblatt International

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Combined Aerobic and Strength Training Improves Glucose Control in Diabetes!!!

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In patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, aerobic exercise combined with resistance training improves glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels vs levels in a nonexercising control group; however, neither form of exercise alone achieves this benefit, a new study has found.

Timothy S. Church, MD, PhD, with the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University System, Baton Rouge, and colleagues reported the findings in the November 24 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

According to the researchers, it is known that exercise benefits patients with type 2 diabetes, but “the exact exercise prescription in terms of type (aerobic vs resistance vs both) is unclear.”

To elucidate the relative contribution of aerobic and strength training, the researchers conducted a randomized controlled trial including 262 sedentary participants with type 2 diabetes and HbA1c levels of 6.5% or higher. Participants were enrolled in a 9-month exercise program between April 2007 and August 2009.

A total of 41 subjects were assigned to the nonexercise control group. The remaining participants were assigned to resistance training 3 days a week; aerobic exercise (12 kcal/kg per week of energy expenditure); or combined aerobic and resistance training (10 kcal/kg per week of energy expenditure), in addition to resistance training twice a week.

Levels of HbA1c decreased by an average of 0.34% (95% confidence interval [CI], −0.64% to −0.03%; P = .03) in the combined group, whereas there was no significant decline in either the aerobic training-alone group or the strength training-alone group vs the nonexercising control group.

The combination exercise group had an improved maximal oxygen consumption (mean, 1.0 mL/kg/minute; 95% CI, 0.5 – 1.5; P < .05) vs the control group. In addition, during the 9-month study, all exercise groups had a decrease in waist circumference from −1.9 to −2.8 cm vs the control group.

The resistance training group also lost a mean of −1.4 kg of fat mass (95% CI, −2.0 to −0.7 kg; P < .05), and the combined group lost a mean of −1.7 kg of fat mass (95% CI, −2.3 to −1.1 kg; P < .05) vs the control group. The decline in fat mass in the aerobic training group was not significant, however.

“…although both resistance and aerobic training provide benefits, only the combination of the 2 were associated with reductions in HbA1c levels,” the study authors conclude. “Furthermore, cumulative benefit across all outcomes was greater in the combination training group compared with either aerobic or resistance training alone,” they add.

The researchers note that this is the “first large randomized trial involving individuals with type 2 diabetes to directly test exercise prescriptions that are consistent with the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines of 500 to 1000 MET [metabolic equivalent tasks] minutes per week combined with 2 days of resistance training.”

In a related editorial, Ronald J. Sigal, MD, MPH, and Glen P. Kenny, PhD, with the University of Ottawa and Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, in Ontario, Canada, noted that the study results add to the results of other studies that also suggest that “combined aerobic and resistance exercise was more effective than either type of exercise alone for improvement of glycemic control in type 2 diabetes.”

“…given a specific amount of time to invest in exercise, it is more beneficial to devote some time to each form of exercise rather than devoting all the time to just one form of exercise,” they add.