This was originally published in Magnolia Magazine
We will now start discussing the elements of the actual exercise program. Although nutrition is definitely a key element for fat loss, it alone will not create fitness. True fitness is what enables one to radiate vitality, function better in every aspect of life, minimize pain and maximize well being. To achieve this level of fitness, exercise is the IT factor!
Warm-up and Cool-down
Unfortunately, folks are often in such a rush that they neglect performing a proper warm-up and/or cool-down.
From a cardiovascular and musculoskeletal perspective it’s important to allow the body to move into and out of exercise gradually.
Here are some benefits of a proper warm-up:
• The blood is gradually “shunted” from the core of the body to the extremities, more safely preparing the body for exercise. This directs more blood flow to the exercising muscles, providing them with nourishment and helping to remove waste products.
• Heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen consumption are gradually increased.
• Lessening of premature onset of blood lactic acid accumulation (helping reduce the burning sensation in the muscles).
• Warm-up helps reduce fatigue during higher level aerobic exercise.
• Increased elasticity of the active muscles.
• Gradual increase in heat in the active muscle groups (reducing the likelihood of muscle injury)
• The nervous system is primed to help recruit more motor units within the muscles, enhancing exercise performance.
• Prepares muscles for pre-exercise stretching.
• Provides early awareness of potential musculoskeletal or metabolic problems that may increase at higher intensities. This can help one avoid a potentially dangerous health situation.
• Mental preparation for exercise.
Length: Warm-ups are generally recommended for at least 3-5 minutes. However the duration should be adjusted depending on the level and intensity of the primary conditioning activity as well as the person’s fitness level.
General and Specific Warm-ups:
A general warm-up is one that is non-specific to the activity at hand. Examples are riding a stationary bike or walking on a treadmill before performing resistance training.
A specific warm-up would resemble the primary exercise activity. For example, bodyweight squats before leg presses, push-ups before bench presses, or walking to prepare for running.
When performing resistance training, I highly recommend continuing the warm-up process by doing at least one warm-up set of about 15 or so repetitions of each resistance exercise before moving on to heavier loads.
With my personal training clients I incorporate “Three dimensional warm-ups”. These utilize primary functional movement patterns, giving many benefits of both general and specific warm-ups. They also enhance their overall movement efficiency, making one less vulnerable to injury both during exercise and daily life.
Cool Down
The Cool-down is extremely important on so many levels.
• Gradually decreases the heart rate and overall metabolism.
• Reversal of the blood shunt, helping to prevent post exercise venous blood pooling and too rapid a drop in blood pressure. This reduces the likelihood of lightheadedness or fainting.
• Reduction in incidence of post exercise muscle spasms or cramping.
• Reduction in the concentration of exercise hormones, thereby lowering the probability of post-exercise disturbance in cardiac rhythm.
For Cool-downs, low level activity, similar to that of the conditioning exercise is recommended.
The length should be proportional to the intensity and length of the primary conditioning phase. A 30-40 minute conditioning phase at moderately high intensity should warrant a 5-10 minute cool-down. Stretching is also recommended after the cool-down focusing on the muscle groups most utilized in the conditioning activity.
This is an updated version of an article that was original published in Magnolia Magazine
An Exercise In Patience
One scenario I’ve seen far too often is when folks, who haven’t exercised in a long time, get inspired to suddenly put on their athletic shoes and go for a jog or run. Chances are the next few days are going to be filled with aching muscles and tender, painful joints. In some cases a moderate to severe injury can occur, especially in vulnerable areas like the knees and lower back. Even more serious are the consequences that can result from cardiorespiratory issues exacerbated by inappropriate exercise.
When it comes to beginning an exercise program it’s extremely important not to be too impatient. It takes time for the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems to adapt to the stresses placed on them. You need to build a strong foundation and move from there. But before even starting there’s something else to consider.
Medical Clearance
It is always very important to make sure that you don’t have any pre-existing conditions that would make certain types (or intensities) of exercise contraindicated. Before any client of a Fitness Professional can begin their exercise program, they are required to fill out, in the minimum, a form called a”Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire” ( PAR-Q ). If someone answers yes to any question on the Par-Q, then often medical clearance and guidelines would be required from their health care provider.
Unfortunately many people starting an exercise program don’t consider this important first step. They just assume that it’s safe to start. I’d highly recommend checking with your physician before starting to exercise on your own to make sure you are good to go!
Assessing Before Progressing
For the sake of illustration I will describe how I progress a client in the beginning. This may give you an idea of how to begin.
I always start each session by having them work on their overall body alignment from the ground up.
We start with the soles of their feet, making sure they aren't distributing their weight unevenly and then work up to the knees, hips, torso and neck and head. The reason we do this each time is because many factors can change a person's alignment from day to day and we always want to establish good posture.
This is also an opportunity for my clients to get centered and create a high level of body awareness (i.e. kinesthetic awareness). This in turn helps them create more conscious movement patterns rather than just "going through the motions" unconsciously.
As we begin slowly working through various simple movements I am carefully observing and assessing their fluidity and/or any noticable asymmetries. I also listen to the verbal feedback they give me about how each movement feels so I can make note any tightness or pain they experience. I also scan for any postural deviations that need to be considered. One common concern is an over exaggerated arch (lordosis) in their lower back.
Let’s consider this particular physical issue in relation to jogging. Often tight hip flexors are the culprits that pull the top of the pelvis forward into an anterior pelvic tilt. This creates an exaggerated curve in the lumbar spine. Two of the hip flexor muscles (called the Psoas major and minor), attach directly to the Lumbar spine so if they are tight there is already considerable tension there (imagine a “tug of war” with muscles pulling against your spine).
Now picture the additional forces that jogging or running would place on that badly misaligned pelvis. Every step creates potentially hazardous impact not only in the lower back itself but throughout the whole body (ouch!). So here we have what would appear to be a “healthy activity” fraught with potential danger!
It’s important never to ignore and push through pain. Well known Physical Therapist Grey Cook refers to this as “Putting training on top of dysfunction”. Yet so many people do push through, assuming that once they “whip themselves into shape” they’ll be okay.
Let’s consider a better strategy. Instead of moving straight into a high impact activity such as jogging, we would first release the tight areas and start to strengthen overstretched areas. From there you build a strong physical foundation by increasing the stability and strength throughout the body. We would also use very low impact movements, gradually progressing the intensity as appropriate. This gives the body time to properly adapt through each level of intensity.
Becoming a certified personal trainer was a dream come true for me. It's something that I'm passionate about in a way that is hard to even express.
For me it's an honor and priviledge to be entrusted with my clients health and well being in the capacity in which I can serve them.
Unfortunately the way personal trainers are often portrayed in the media, there is a misrepresentation of what personal trainers do and/or how we treat the people we are there to serve (i.e. "The Biggest Loser").
I wanted to share some thoughts on what being a personal trainer personally means to me:
Being a certified personal trainer is not just about creating programs or exercise routines. It is about the careful consideration of each client’s unique physical, mental and emotional qualities, therefore it’s holistic in nature.
It’s about having a laser-like focus on each client’s movement patterns and helping them make the proper adjustments. In a sense, EVERY moment of the session is an assessment.
It’s about teaching clients in a way that helps them develop their kinesthetic awareness so they can better function not only during their training sessions but in all the activities of their lives.
It’s about proper and appropriate progression that safely allows for positive adaptations to occur.
It’s about weighing the “risk versus reward” of any exercise or movement pattern and especially as it relates to the individual client(s) we are working with.
It’s about understanding how to help our clients develop confidence in their abilities to get healthier, more fit, and develop self efficacy through a love of fitness.
It’s about having the flexibility that enables you to modify or entirely discard the intended program you had planned in order to meet the needs of the client in that moment.
It’s about providing the highest level of excellence possible in the services you provide.
It’s about a commitment to continuing education that goes well beyond our CEC requirements.
Finally every personal trainer, regardless of the organization(s) they are affiliated with, should realize that their individual actions represent our profession as a whole and should act accordingly!
Scott Fishkind
http://www.time4youfitness.com/
Aging Redefined
I once heard a very wise saying which went something like:
“Don’t let an old person move into your body”.
I really took this advice to heart. I truly believe that “rather than letting age define you, you can redefine what aging means”
For example, I am 50 years old yet I feel like I’m 20!
This is true on so many levels from a psychological as well as physical standpoint.
The Fountain Of Youth?
It's often said that “Exercise is the fountain of youth”, and while in many respects this is true, it’s an incomplete statement. It would be more accurate to say that a healthy “lifestyle” is the fountain of youth.
This lifestyle must include exercise, but also nutrition, proper rest and trying to avoid putting substances in your body that will have a "toxic" effect on your health.
I would also put “toxic thoughts” into the category of things that need to be limited as much as possible as well!
Aging and Exercise
Although I stated above the importance of an overall healthy lifestyle, I would like to focus specifically on the role exercise itself can play as an extremely potent positive force.
Below are some bullet points I've organized based on information from the ACE Personal Trainer Manual, 3rd edition:
- Quality of life may be measured by the individual’s ability to perform activities of daily living.
While someone may be 65 years of age (chronological age), they may have a biological age of 45 based on their fitness and health status. The importance of regular exercise and health promotion cannot be emphasized enough when looking at the association of chronological versus biological age.
How exercise can help: Even though exercise heart rate declines with age, stroke volume (the amount of blood pumped with each beat of the heart) can increase or be maintained in healthy older subjects who exercise, thus overcoming the effect of a lowered heart rate.
Endurance training can significantly reduce the mean blood pressure and the systemic vascular resistance in older individuals.
With age, loss of calcium results in decreased bone mass, but weight bearing and resistance-training exercises are known to help maintain bone mass.
Muscle mass declines with age (creating less strength and endurance) primarily due to changes in lifestyle and decreased use of the neuromuscular system. However significant strength gains in previously sedentary older adults can be attained by a program of regular exercise.
As lean body weight (muscle and bone) declines with age, body fat increases. This change in body composition is primarily due to decrease in muscle mass, basal metabolic rate (BMR- which is basically your metabolism, the slower it is the less calories are burned), and lack of physical activity.
- Regular physical activity preserves lean body mass, decreasing fat stores and stimulating protein synthesis which may reverse these adverse changes in body composition associated with aging.
Note: Older adults need to be fully cleared to participate in physical activity by their physician.
(S. Fishkind 8/1/2010 50 years old)
Scott Fishkind http://www.time4youfitness.com/
When Mike Boyle Speaks We Should All Listen!
Not long ago, I was listening to a conversation with Mike Boyle on his "Strength Coach Podcast" episode 32:
http://strengthcoachpodcast.typepad.com/the_strength_coach_podcas/2009/03/episode-32--strength-coach-podcast.html.
For those who don't know Mike Boyle let me list some of his accomplishments:
- He is the owner of "Mike Boyle's Strength and Conditioning" (MBSC) which is one of the top athletic training facilities in the world.
- He founded "Strength Coach.Com", the undisputed top forum in the field which attracts world class strength and conditioning coaches, physical therapists and personal trainers as contributers.
- He is an internationally recognized speaker as well as author in the field.
- As if that isn't enough, Mike is also the Head Strength and Conditioning coach for the 2009 National Champion Boston University Terriers hockey team.
In this particular discussion, he was speaking about the importance of strength related to the success of the B.U. hockey team. However he was not stressing its importance in terms of how it would enhance performance skills but rather it's impact first and foremost on injury reduction.
Less injured players means having greater roster depth which enabled them to have their best athletes available on the ice deep into the post season.
The strength he was referring to in particular was the development of high levels of contractile strength. This type of muscular strength helps maintain the integrity of the joints enabling them to withstand the punishment of constant high speed impact!
Do You Need Contractile Strength?
Most people reading this blog post may be thinking, “But I am not an athlete so what does this have to do with me?”
Well even for non-athletes, having a good amount of contractile strength can help make one more resilient to the demands of daily life and the unpredictable circumstances you may encounter on any given day. It may be the difference between sustaining a significant injury or walking away relatively unscathed.
Dogs, Rabbits and Contractile Strength?
A great example of how contractile strength can protect one’s joints has been made clear to me several times when I’ve been out walking my golden retriever.
My Dog During One Of Our Walks
We walk almost every evening before dusk. At that time there are always lots of rabbits visible around the community where I live happily munching on the grass.
There have been several occasions where my head has been turned and my dog decided to take off suddenly in his determined but futile attempt to chase one of these bunnies.
When this occurs I usually have a split second between feeling the sudden tug on the leash and stopping him in his tracks.
He’s a fairly large, powerful dog and he creates quite a lot of force when he decides "it's go time!" That force is not only placed right into my shoulder capsule but down through my torso and ultimately into my legs and feet.
There is no doubt in my mind that if I didn’t have good contractile strength from my core outward, I would have sustained several injuries by now because of that very sweet but "rabbit crazy" pooch.
Ground Based Training
A good deal of the training I do is "ground based". This means that I may work with resistance tubing or cable apparatus from a standing position. So the training actually builds strength in an integrated manner from my feet upwards. The muscles have learned to fire in an optimal pattern from this standing position as opposed to sitting on a machine or lying on a bench.
Certainly for pure contractile strength around certain joints those other types of training can be useful, but for more "functional" strength it is very important to spend some time doing ground based training.
Bumps, Groceries and Gardening?
The above scenario with my dog is just one situation where having this integrated contractile strength can prevent injury. There are many other scenarios where having this type of strength can help you stay safe.
For example, people commonly encounter situations where someone may bump into them unexpectedly. Having good strength in one's hips, legs and core (as well as balance), can mean the difference between having a potentially harmful fall and merely being thrown temporarily off kilter.
Not only can this type of strength prevent injury in terms of an unexpected force being placed on your body, but it can help you be more capable of handling the various physical stresses of daily life, from carrying a child or groceries, to weeding in your garden or playing recreational sports.
So please don't ignore the importance of contractile strength and ground based strength training in your fitness programs, it can really make you less vulnerable to injury as well as help you function better in every activity!
Note: I just wanted to clarify that when I'm referring to core strength, this refers to muscles from the hips to the shoulders that surround the front and back of the body. I am not speaking specifically about the abdominals (or doing exercises like crunches or any spinal flexion in fact).
Rather along with the ground based training which utilizes the core as a stabilizer during pushing and pulling movements, I also do specific core work using various types of stabilization exercises such as plank variations, Bird-Dogs and various exercises that create resistance against rotation.
Scott Fishkind Time4You Fitness
Please contact me at http://www.time4youfitness.com/
Familiar Memories
"STOP SLOUCHING!"
"STAND (or "SIT") UP STRAIGHT!"
Sound familiar? You probably heard these words from your parents, teachers, coaches etc.
More often than not, this probably went in one ear and out the other. We often chalk it up to stuff that the adults in our lives used to tell us along with things like "Eat your vegetables", "Do your homework!" etc.
"Boy those adults sure were annoying!" right?
However behind these words related to posture is actually very important wisdom.
Thinking about it, eating your vegetables and doing your homework weren't such bad ideas either :)
All Exercise is Good Right?
Even if one is diligent about exercising, bad posture can wreak havoc on our bodies and lead to debilitating injuries over time.
This all falls under the topic of biomechanics which has to do with the principles of mechanics applied to a living organism. In this case that living organism is you!
This also doesn't just apply to just how you stand or sit throughout the day but to exercise itself.
Run Forrest Run!
I was driving to the gym this morning and saw someone jogging down the road.
A healthy activity one would think right?
Well, it depends!
The way this fellow, and in fact the way I've seen "most" people jog, their running mechanics are so far from optimal (to put it mildly) that they are placing themselves in a perfect position to create injuries.
This is due to the extreme and repetitive ground reaction forces they are continuously placing on their misaligned structures.
Ground reaction forces mirror right back into the body the forces that are placed into the ground. Imagine what that does to one's body over time, and especially to someone who isn't using good technique!
The folks that benefit the most from this type of activity are the orthopedic physicians and other doctors that will be billing you for the services they provide after you hurt yourself (not to mention the companies who produce the drugs they'll most likely be prescribing for you).
Day to Day Posture
Even in less intense activities, having good posture is critical to one's health. People often don't think of "health" from a musculoskeletal standpoint. Rather, these types of pain are written off using colloquial expressions such as "tweaking their back", having a "stitch in their side" or "Crick in the neck" etc.
But any imbalance in the body is ultimately a "health" issue, it doesn't always have to involve an obvious illness or disease of some sort. For example, imbalances or impingements that effect the spine can directly impact the ability of the nervous system to communicate with certain parts of the body. Over time this can have drastic consequences for those parts affected.
Additionally, the body is a single interconnected unit so inevitably any dysfunction can end up snow balling into other problems that would seem totally unrelated to the initial injury.
To illustrate, you may hurt your back, which keeps you up all night from the pain, which causes you to become exhausted, which in turn causes your immune system to become compromised, which leaves you more vulnerable to getting sick etc.
While it's true that anyone can get hurt whether they use good posture or not, doesn't it make sense to try and lessen the chances of having to deal with this type of situtation if you have the option?
Starting From A Strong Foundation
Posture is such an important issue with me as a trainer that we spend a few minutes during each training session to make sure we have good alignment before we move into the more active part of the session.
I have my clients start from their feet and work their way up segment by segment through the "kinetic chain". The "kinetic chain" consists of all the interconnected parts that are used to create movement. Like any chain, it's only as strong as its weakest link.
Remember that old song "The foot bone's connected to the ankle bone, the ankle bone's connected to the... etc..." Well, there was a lot of truth to that song. What happens in your feet can ultimately affect your neck.
I lived through this experience personally in a way that was very vivid. I broke my big toe. No big deal right? Well, after a week of hobbling around and not being able to walk properly, my lower back, upper back and neck were totally out of whack. Trust me, it's all interconnected!
If clients discover certain areas of concern, we'll need to put emphasis on specific flexibility and strength exercises to address those issues. This will help to create a more balanced structure from which to work from.
A common issue with people is having tight hip flexors that creates an excessive lordosis (lower back inward arch) from the top of their pelvis being rotated forward. This often shuts down their glutes which affects how they walk. So we'll want to create flexibility in the hip flexors and get them to be able to fire their glutes.
Without addressing this first we'd be putting training on top of a misalignment which could lead to injury.
Now if there are real pain issues that are present, a health professional will most likely need to get involved. But in all cases this initial "body scan" is a critical first step before moving into anything resembling training.
We are not only trying to create good alignment for the session itself but to build good postural awareness.
This awareness carries over throughout the session and ideally (and more importantly), through the rest of the day into each client's lives.
You can start creating this awareness right now by being aware of your body position as you are reading this blog. Then try to continue to do this during the rest of your daily activities.
Assessing Not Guessing
Ideally it pays to have someone with experience do a postural assessment of you. This way you'll know specifically what to concentrate on in terms of your posture.
The thing is, as people get used to being out of alignment, that misaligned position feels normal to them. In fact, "correct" alignment may feel strange at first. But you just start a little at a time and try to learn healthier patterns related to your overall posture.
By Scott Fishkind/Time4You Fitness
http://www.time4youfitness.com/
GETTING THE BURN
There was a time when I was definitely NOT in the kind of shape I’m in today. I carried about 40 pounds of extra fat on my body and a large portion of it seemed to settle around my mid-section.
So like anyone else in my position I figured I’d better start doing some ab exercises so I could “burn away the fat”.
While I’d feel the “burn” in my abdominal region from the exercise, it didn’t actually melt the fat away from that area (it was just lactic acid accumulation).
I later learned that spot reduction, from exercise, doesn’t actually exist. The only way to spot reduce fat is from a surgical procedure like liposuction.
SO WHAT DOES WORK?
What I also came to learn was that it took a combination of things to achieve the results I wanted.
First and foremost, I had to face the fact that I had to change how I was eating. I was on the classic “See Food” diet where “If I saw it, I ate it!”
Second I had to start on a consistent exercise program.
This plan worked and I not only lost almost all 40 lbs in about 6 months but I also got extremely fit!
I WANT TO PUMP YOU UP!
Interestingly enough, what worked for me was not the typical cardio approach that so most people believe is key to losing weight (i.e. body fat).
I intuitively discovered that it was about building muscle!
This was lucky for me since I enjoyed resistance training more than cardio.
I did supplement occasionally with cardio, just because I figured I should do some cardio, but it was really a minimal amount.
Years later I learned that the reason resistance training was so critical to the success I had is because muscle is “metabolically active” tissue.
This means it requires a certain amount of energy in the form of calories in order to maintain itself.
Fat doesn’t use much energy and in fact it is a form of stored energy, so it’s not metabolically active in the way muscle is.
FAT LOSS PATTERNS
One thing that really surprised me throughout the process was that as I started losing fat, it came off pretty much everywhere else before my abs.
When it did start to come off there, it started with a 2 pack just below my sternum, then a 4 pack and eventually a 6 pack in the lower abdominal region.
I eventually learned that people tend to lose fat in a certain pattern . On most men it seems that the waist is the last place fat tends to come off, with women it’s usually, the hips and thighs .
Certainly some folks have different genetic patterns and I’ve actually seen the exact opposite scenarios between men and women.
YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT
Even after all these years that I’ve been involved with fitness, first as a “layperson” and then as a fitness professional, the only difference my physique undergoes these days in terms of fat loss is primarily as a result of how I eat.
This is because my fitness program is extremely consistent in terms of the way I cycle intensity.
In the winter months I like to carry about 5 extra pounds because I find being too lean in the winter doesn't work for me (as I can't stay warm), but as spring approaches I shed them.
This is always accomplished by gradual reductions in my overall caloric consumption, small changes that get me to where I want to be pretty easily and painlessly.
And what do you know, those lower abs come back where I want them to without any extra ab exercises. :)
IN SUMMARY
So in Summary. No matter how much time you spend working on your abs. butt or thighs, it won’t burn off the fat in those specific areas.
What will work for most people is to first clean up your nutrition, add a resistance training program to build lean body tissue (i.e. muscle) and supplement it with cardio as the "icing on the cake" (pun intended! :)).
A caveat: I wanted to clarify that I am not against cardio training and I do include training that I call "conditioning" work. This includes modalities like kickboxing, aerobic stepping and agility work among others.
I also do metabolic strength training which are intense circuits (or complexes) which create a great metabolic disturbance. This type of training does give cardiovascular and weight loss benefits.
Primarily, I'm just not a big believer in the efficacy of "steady state" cardio such as typical machine training on treadmills, bikes and ellipticals, as a primary weight loss tool (note: for severely overweight or deconditioned individuals, this may be a good starting point but not to the exclusion of nutritional modifications-the most important element- and resistance training).
If one wants to use those types of modalities, then interval training, in particular high intensity interval training, can give great benefits and will certainly produce caloric expenditure both during and after the workout.
The problem is that often people do that type of training as their sole source of fitness and often additionally neglect the nutritional element, and therefore don't get the fat loss benefits they are seeking.
Scott Fishkind
http://www.time4youfitness.com/
