Time Crunch

Q: I’ve been missing workouts because I don’t have time due to my new work schedule. Can I still get good results working out only two times a week?

A: If you’re only working out twice a week that may be enough to maintain, but if you’re still looking to improve shoot for at least three days a week. Make a serious effort to make your health and fitness a priority in your life. Do your best to get in and stay in the habit of doing all your workouts. When you get in the habit of skipping a workout here and there it becomes all too easy to let a week or two go by without working out.

Even if you can’t complete your full workout do your best to work hard for 15 minutes. This may not seem like much but it keeps you in the routine of being consistent and not skipping your workouts. Since you only have 15 minutes some days you need to make it count. Spend as much of your time working and rest as short as possible. Here’s an example of a lower body workout:

1 minute Squats
1 minute Bulgarian Split Squats right leg
1 minute Bulgarian Split Squats left leg
1 minute SL Deadlift Right Leg
1 minute SL Deadlift Left Leg

Repeat 3 times

This workout also has a cardio component because the circuit doesn’t allow for rest, so your heart rate will remain elevated giving you a 15 minute cardio workout as well. However if you need rest take it when needed, but keep it to a minimum as your goal is to do as much work as you can in a short period of time.

Cardio or Weights?

A few days ago I saw a man and a woman enter the gym together and he asked her, “Do you want to do cardio or weights today?” I didn’t even listen to the answer because two things immediately ran through my mind:

1. If you have to ask you’re probably not following any type of program

2. Do you really have to choose?

If you are following a program you should know what you’re going to do before you step foot in the gym. If you aren’t you’re probably going to waist time figuring out what to do, and I don’t know about you but as much as I enjoy working out I don’t like wasting time. My other issue is when you follow a plan you have progression, meaning it gradually gets harder so you get stronger, faster, more endurance, greater fat loss, ect. And when you don’t have a plan you have no progression because you're making it up on the fly which leads to poor results.

Even if there was not benefit to having a progression, you still don’t need to choose. Why not do both? Again, stop wasting time and do both weights and cardio to get the benefits of both in less time. Start with your weights and add cardio intervals between your sets instead of resting so you can build muscle and burn more calories in less time leading to greater fat loss.

Top 10 mistakes people make in the gym

When I'm in the gym, I can't help but to see people making mistakes that are slowing down their progress. I'm not alone either. The American Council on Exercise (ACE) recently polled 2,500 certified fitness professionals to find out what they consider to be the top 10 mistakes made by health club members today.

Here are the surprising (and not-so-surprising) results of that study:

10. Exercising too hard: Moderate exercise is the most effective. Many people believe that they can "make up" for missed workouts.

9. Not exercising intensely enough: Picking up the pace will help members achieve changes they may not be experiencing. If their workout isn't challenging, then the lack of results can be discouraging.

8. Bad posture: People should never slouch or slump when either using machines or participating in a group exercise class. Proper posture can prevent back injuries.

7. Using momentum, rather than muscles, to lift weights: Slow, controlled movements are what builds muscle strength.

6. Lifting too much weight: If complete range of motion is not possible, then most likely the weight is too heavy. As my husband always says ... more is not necessarily better!

5. Not stretching: Stretching helps reduce injuries and increases muscle length and mobility, if done properly.

4. Skipping a cool down: Cooling down after a workout will lower the heart rate and prevent dizziness.

3. Not warming up properly: People who start their workouts full-force are likely candidates for injury and/or exhaustion. Warming up gets the blood flowing and gives muscles time to adapt.

2. Not drinking enough water: In exercise, the key is hydration, hydration, hydration! Please ensure that water is readily available in your club at all times.

1. Not consuming a nutritious "meal" within one hour of workout: The optimal time for consuming a combination of protein and carbohydrates is immediately following an intense workout session. This "window of opportunity" is imperative to the recovery of the body. A good choice is a fruit smoothie containing at least 23 grams of protein.

Check out the top 10 Nutritional Mistakes

My Muscle Building Fat Burning Countdown Workout

I’m going to share with you a workout that I recently did using countdowns. It was a great workout because it was a full body circuit that incorporated strength, balance, cardio conditioning, and core stabilization with only four body weight exercises. To do countdowns you’ll start with a high number of reps and with each round you’ll do fewer reps, working your way down to 1 rep on the last round. I started at 10 reps and worked my way down to 1. Best of all it was done in under 30 minutes; my heart rate was racing, I was sweating and my muscles were burning (remember if you want to see results, you must push beyond your comfort zone; translation - work up a sweat).

The four exercises:

1. Bulgarian Split Squat 10 reps with right leg, 10 reps with left leg
2. Single-leg Romanian Deadlift 10 reps with right leg, 10 reps with left leg
3. Chin up 10 reps
4. Pike push up 10 reps

The exercises are done with no rest between (unless you’re tired) that’s one round. The next round repeats the same order with 9 reps of everything, then 8 rep and so on until the last round is complete with 1 rep of everything. That’s 330 total reps!

The great thing about this workout is I didn’t need any weight; all I needed was a pull up bar. Anyone who thinks you can’t do cardio without a machine needs to try this. I challenge you to work through it with as little rest as you can and let me know how high your heart rate gets.

Train With Weights To Lose Fat

Did you know that for every pound of muscle you gain, your metabolism increases enough to burn an extra 50 calories per day? This may not sound all that impressive, but if you gain five pounds of muscle you’ll burn an additional 250 calories a day just sitting there carrying around that added muscle. Over the course of a year you’ll shed 26 pounds without any added cardio or diet changes.

If you’re not lifting weights start today and begin shedding fat and tone up. For help with muscle building workouts visit workoutquest.com.

Push Yourself to Achieve Better Results

If you want to see results with your exercise program you need to put in the effort to get the end result you are looking for. Don't just go thru the motions and hope something good will come of it. If you're currently exercising on cardio machines at a snails pace with no interest what so ever in your workout then seeing improvement can be a slow process. Furthermore if you do resistance training half heartedly with far too little intensity trying not to break a sweat or feel the burn a simple change can make all the difference. Yes going through the motions is better than doing nothing, but it may be just enough to maintain or improve very slowly.

Check your intensity. A quick and easy way to gauge your intensity level is to use a one to ten scale, where one represents little to no intensity (think laying on the couch) and ten is an all out effort. Aim to do most of your exercising in at levels 7 or above. When resistance training if you are to do 3 sets of 12 reps make sure 12 reps takes you to fatigue. If you are working with a weight you can do 15 times it's time to start using a heavier weight, the last three reps should be somewhat difficult, especially on your final set.

To start seeing results more rapidly push yourself beyond your comfort zone. This means doing more this week than last week. If last week you ran for 20 minutes at 6.0 miles per hour with no incline, this week try to increase your time to 22 minutes, your speed to 6.2 miles per hour or add an incline of 2-3%. In addition if you currently using 15 pound dumbbells for 3 sets of 10 reps try pushing out a couple of extra reps, progressing to 3 sets of 12 with the same weight or increasing your weight to 20 pounds and do 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps. You will feel the added intensity but it is so small it won't be overwhelming, just enough to push yourself past your comfort zone. Over a period of three months you can expect to see some major improvement with small increases like this.

500 Crunches?

Yesterday I had a conversation with a woman who told me she does 500 crunches a day. The first thing that came to my mind was why. Is the goal solely to complete 500 reps, or is it to see abdominal definition or is the goal really to strengthen her core? The second thing that came to my mind was if she has to do 500 to feel it, she isn’t doing them right.

To properly perform abdominal crunches don’t just go through the motions. As you come up contract the abdominals hold for a second in the top position and slowly lower yourself back to the floor. Needless to say she wasn’t doing this. After asking more questions I found out this woman plays tennis three times a week and works out with a trainer twice a week to stay in shape. Her trainer should have told her she doesn’t need to do her daily 500 crunches, she needs more core strength.

If you’re truly going to work your core, then stop trying to isolate your abs. To strengthen the muscles of your core use more resistance and do the exercises the right way and move the way the body moves. Your lower back and hips are included in the core as well. To strengthen her core and improve her tennis game, I had her try full sit ups, which she could not do without complaining (due to weak hip flexors and low back), plank holds, resistance band side rotations as well as hip bridges to strengthen her glutes, hamstrings and low back. These are just a few simple exercises that can be done in minimal time and yield maximum results.

Does your workout incorporate these four movements?

1. Hip flexion - examples include: sit ups, reverse crunches, and leg lifts
2. Hip extension – examples include: hip bridges, reverse hypers, and good mornings
3. Trunk rotation – example include: side band rotations, Russian twists, and cable wood chops
4. Isometric core stabilization – examples include: plank holds, and side plank holds
   

If your goal is to increase your core strength and improve your athletic performance be sure to include the four movements into your workouts. In addition, if you want to see your abs you also need to make fat burning resistance training, high intensity interval training, and proper diet high priorities.

Not Seeing Results in the Weight Room?

One observation I have noticed over and over in weight rooms is people doing the same workouts for too long. It’s usually guys lifting the same weight on the bench press and women doing the same dumbbell exercises with the same five and ten pound dumbbells. If you workout on a regular basis and have been doing the same routine for awhile chances are you are no longer seeing results. One reason may be you aren’t following the principle of progressive overload. Progressive overload is increasing the training stress or intensity beyond what you are used to.

Your body is smart and will adapt to stresses placed upon it. For instance the first time you leg pressed 300 pounds your body got sore, because it wasn’t used to it. Your body adapted to that stress and made itself stronger. The problem is when you get comfortable lifting that same 300 pounds. Once you stop increasing the stress or intensity of your workout your body will stop responding, and results will also stop.

Lifting more weight is one way to overload the body. Other ways include doing more sets or reps with the same weight, or doing the same weight sets and reps, with shorter breaks in between.

Putting it to work for you
Look at the example of progressive overload below. In the first week do your regular workout. In week 2 add reps, in week 3 add sets, and week 4 add weight. Now look at the total volume (sets x reps x weight) of the exercise. In four workouts the volume has increased from 7200 to 11,160.

Week 1 – regular; 3 sets x 8 reps 300 pounds total volume = 7200
Week 2 – add reps; 3 sets x 9 reps 300 pounds total volume = 8100
Week 3 – add sets; 4 sets x 9 reps 300 pounds total volume = 10,800
Week 4 – add weight; 4 sets x 9 reps 310 pounds total volume = 11,160

By challenging your body to work harder, it will respond by getting stronger. Remember it is progressive overload, so add a little at a time and your body will respond.