Warm Up to Slim Down

When is the last time you took 15-20 minutes to warm-up before a workout? When is the last time this warm-up did not include the treadmill or bike?

If you have to think about this one, chances are, you have not been making the most of your time at the gym. While strength training is crucial to fat loss and muscle gain, it is only as good as your preparation for it. Unfortunately, even if you have been working in some warm up time, the standard 10 minutes on the treadmill just won’t cut it anymore. We want all of the following to be achieved BEFORE we begin strength training:

1)    Focus our minds on the task at hand

2)    Improve tissue quality

3)    Lengthen muscles

4)    Re-program motor control signals

5)    Activate core musculature

6)    Prepare our central nervous system

7)    Turn on hip, knee, and shoulder stabilizers

8)    Increase tissue temperature

As you can see, the treadmill will only achieve one, maybe two of these goals. A better approach would be to include a variety of activities that truly prepare your body for the work you are about to demand of it.

This, in turn, will produce better results from your strength work! This is especially true if you are trying to slim down. The benefit of strength training is most apparent when the body must work hard to recover from the exercise, not necessarily from the exercise itself. In general, you burn fewer calories during a strength workout than a long-distance run, but the total calories AND total fat burned over a 48-hour period are much higher as a result of strength training.

Back to the warm-up: If we prepare our bodies properly, we will be able to push ourselves harder in our workouts and produce a larger recovery response over the next 48 hours. In other words, more fat burning! The following are the three steps that I take to ensure that I get the most out of my strength work.

P.S. As you will notice, the follow will add up to around 20 minutes of work. This may concern you as it means that you may not have as much time for your usual workout. Fear not! Most people spend way too much time with their exercises with varied results. By warming up and having a focused strength program, you will not need as much time for your lifts (only 20-30 minutes) and you will still get better results than you did when you were lifting for 60+ minutes. Less is more, so let’s get to it!

Step 1: Foam Roll

If you have never used a foam roller before, check out the video below to learn more. During your time on the foam roller (about 5 minutes), you should be focusing on two things. First, you are working to break down scar tissue, increase the flow of oxygen and nutrients to your muscles, and ensure that your muscles can fire properly. Second, you should be thinking about your goals and what you want to achieve from your workout. Is this going to be a give-it-you-all day? Or is this going to be more of a recovery day? Do you need to progress in an exercise from last time? This should be your time to mentally prepare so that you get the most from your exercise.

Nice series, as you do this more, you will learn where you need it the most and focus on those areas more.

Step 2: Corrective Exercise

This is sometimes referred to as prehabilitative training, the idea being that we are spending time on specific issues that may result in injury if not attended to. I take a two part approach to corrective exercise: first we stretch and then we stabilize. Let’s say you frequently leave the gym with a sore back. Chances are, your butt is not doing its job and your back is now picking up the slack. If this sounds familiar, you might want to combine your favorite hip stretch (what is most tight around your hip?), and then go straight into bridges to help get those glutes firing! If you jump into a workout without your butt working right, there will always be problems. This section will usually involve 2-3 exercises, so it should not take more than 5 minutes.

Good movement on this one, but I would go for 3-5, 5 second holds on each side.

This one you can do with or without the tennis ball, tennis ball will be more challenging.

Step 3: Dynamic Movement

The benefit of dynamic movement, or dynamic stretching, is that we actively take our bodies through various ranges of motion, therefore increasing flexibility, while also keeping the muscles warm and engaged. You will want to look for diversity in your movement, so combine movement skills such as jumping, skipping, running, side steps, etc., with dynamic stretches such as lunges, twists, reaches, squats, pushes and pulls. It is also helpful if you engage in movements that will mimic those exercises you have planned for your strength training session. This should take no more than 10 minutes, but will be vital for eliciting the best response from your strength training.

 Nice variety here, feel free to throw in some of your favorites as well!

There you have it. Follow these three steps, train hard on your lifts, and you will not only see better results, you will also be helping your body to recover and rehabilitate nagging joint problems. Exercise should be about total body health, so let's keep ourselves healthy & moving well as we lose those pounds. Enjoy the warm-up and keep up the good work!

The Power of the Slight Change

Last week, the New York Times ran an article that talked about how walking may be helpful in maintaining brain functioning as we age. While this is interesting in itself (see article below), it got me thinking about how powerful one small change can make when held constant over time.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/health/research/08fitness.html?src=me&ref=health

Make a Move

How would your life be different if you did one thing, every day, which was directly in line with one of your goals? Perhaps you are looking for a new job, so that one thing could be a phone call (this can work for business, social, and relationship goals as well). What a difference you could make with one phone call every day for the next week, month, or year. Some of these could help to build new relationships and others could help to grow existing ones. Either way, as long as you stayed with it, I’m willing to bet things would change for the better.

1% Better

Another way to think about this is to improve by 1% each day. This is broader, but it conveys the same message. Small but consistent movement toward a goal can create great change over time. The idea of 1% better has a nice twist to it that I like. When you increase by 1% over time, you do not grow in a linear fashion, but rather, exponentially. That means that if you stay focused, today could be the least amount of growth you ever experience again.

Of course life is not as clean cut as a nice math equation, but I think the take away from this analogy is this: experience is the currency of growth. So every day that you work toward your goal, whether you have made tangible progress or not, you have gained experience. And over time, it is your experience that is compounding, growing, and will undoubtedly lead to your success.

Take Away

So as the excitement of the New Year wears down, let’s refocus our efforts, but remember that it does not take large, life altering changes to reach our goals. Rather, it takes small, but CONSISTENT movement in one direction that will lead to the most meaningful and powerful results. 

Liquids: Your First Step towards Better Health

If you have ever wondered if there was a simple way to be more healthy, I have good news for you! One of the easiest and most effective strategies for improving your health is to just change the liquids you put into your body. For some, this alone can create dramatic changes in body composition and overall well-being. So put down the diet coke, pick up your water bottle, and let’s run through how to best tackle liquids.

Water:

Water plays a pivotal role in optimizing health. If you do nothing else, simply drink more water to improve your health. To determine your optimal water consumption, follow this formula: body weight (lbs)/2 = oz. of water. So, if you weigh 150 lbs., your goal will be 75 oz. PER DAY. This means that most (if not all) of your liquid should be coming from water. This may seem like a whole lot for some, but breaking it up throughout the day can make it much more manageable. 2 glasses when you wake up, 2 at 10:00 AM, 2 with lunch, 1 with snack, and 2 with dinner. Replacing your current beverages with water would be a great start.

If you want to truly be healthy, water is just about all you should be drinking. Unsweetened tea is a nice way to switch things up a bit, while still moving toward your goal for the day. Other than that, drop the sports drinks (did you really sweat out all of the sodium in your body?), energy drinks, juices, and Crystal Light. Drink plain old water with a squeeze of lemon and you will be good to go.

Coffee:

Depending on how you respond to caffeine, coffee may be your best friend or your worst enemy. For those of you who find that coffee really makes you feel better (and have actually made the effort to NOT drink coffee at some point for comparison purposes), here are a few guidelines for how to use it most effectively.

1) Enjoy up to two cups a day, but have them in the morning.

2) If you need to add something, go with whole whipping cream. This will actually increase the absorption of the caffeine, so you may find that you do not need to drink as much.

3) Avoid sugar, artificial sweeteners, and creamers. This is where many people get into trouble, so take this seriously.

Alcohol:

While alcohol is not the healthiest beverage, you will probably continue to have your wine/beer/tequila regardless of its consequences. So, instead of telling you to avoid all alcohol, here are some tips for limiting the damage.

1) The less, the better (If you usually have 2 glasses of wine each night, try having 1. Or keep the 2 glasses, but only drink 2-3 nights a week).

2) Drink before dinner instead of afterwards. The more time you have between your last drink and the time you go to sleep, the better. Plus, you will feel it more, so you will not need as much!

3) For liquor, add lime/lemon & club soda. This will help you to avoid added sugar while also utilizing the acidity in the lime/lemon to blunt the usual insulin response.

There are not many good reasons to consume other types of liquids than the ones mentioned, and if you decided that caffeine and alcohol are not for you, your body would very much appreciate your thoughtfulness. I also want to reiterate that “diet” drinks are not a healthy alternative, and should be limited as much as their full-sugar siblings.

Bottom line: stick to the water and start seeing and feeling the benefits today!