Treadmill/Elliptical Tips

This week's Q&A in the Orangeville Citizen briefly goes over a few ideas on how to stay motivated by running on a treadmill. These tips are great for treadmills or ellipticals, so I will go into further detail in this blog.

Treadmills and ellipticals are a great way to keep your running legs active over the winter. There are many benefits and advantages to staying fit inside on an exercise machine rather than outside, especially once there is snow on the ground. Studies have shown that your chances of a stress fracture are reduced by nearly 50% from running on a treadmill rather than a road and the impact on your joints are even further reduced on an elliptical. 

Many people dislike exercise machines because they can seem monotonous at times so I will detail a few tips to keep things interesting.  

1) Mix things up with intervals. Many machines now have pre-programmed interval routines right in their computers varying incline and speed for set periods of time. You could even manually change your incline and pace for short bursts at time. I recommend 1:2 ratios where you would increase your speed for 30 seconds and then slow back down to a jog for a minute, and repeat a number of times. 

2) If you have access to watching a television while exercising, you can get creative with it. Every time there is a commercial break, bump your speed up a bit either on alternating commercials or for the entire break. When your program returns, slow back to your regular jog.

3) Negative splits are a term used in the running community, but can be applied to elliptical work as well. Basically what this means is that you will finish your run faster than you started. Begin your run at a nice easy pace, and every minute or two hit your speed button to increase your pace. You will continue to increase your speed the entire run without ever declining your pace. Do this for as long as you can, but make sure at the end you go back to your first speed for a nice 5 minute cool down or so.

4) Simulate hill runs by increasing your incline (or elliptical resistance) for 3 minutes. After the 3 minutes, go back to level incline but increase your speed for 1 minute. After that, go back to a jog for 1 minute to recover and then repeat that whole sequence 3 more times.

5) Load up your mp3 player or ipod with your favorite tunes. Many studies show that people that are listening to their favourite high-adrenaline tunes help them increase their workload. Not only that, you could combine this idea with #1. Create a playlist that alternates fast songs with slow songs. On the fast ones, increase you pace/incline and then for the slower songs, chill out and reduce your speed!

6) Most gyms have mirrors. No, they are not there for you to be constantly checking your hair, they are there to help you check your form. While running, check your form as it gives you something to concentrate on. Watch for these: (1) Minimize your contact with the belt. Don't bounce; think quick feet. (2) Stand tall so all your body segments are aligned. (3) Stay loose and relaxed. Your hands should be in a loose fist, not tight and your teeth should not be clenched.

7) I cannot recommend a heart rate monitor enough. I prefer the ones with a chest strap as I feel they are more accurate and precise. They are great to let you know if you are dogging it or if you are in your training zone. Plus, it is one more thing you can focus on rather than thinking about the 20 minutes of your dreaded workout you have left!

I am a huge fan of going for runs outside in the summer, but the winter can be pretty long and depressing so doing cardiovascular activity indoors during the winter can greatly improve your mood. In fact, some studies have shown that even just 30 minutes of running on a treadmill increase your level of phenylacetic acid (natural antidepressant) by up to 77%. Great for those dark winter days when the sun sets so early!

-Tyler

Resistance Training

Resistance, or weight training should be an integral part of any well-rounded fitness plan. Men and women have a lot to benefit from resistance training.

I know a lot of women are either afraid to train with weights or are not sure where to begin, but even simple exercises with weight can be highly beneficial. I recommend either a personal trainer or even doing some individual research to learn how to strength train properly to maximize your exercising benefits.

The truth of the matter is that many women are afraid of "bulking up" and shy away from too much strength training. Unfortunately, this is a long standing myth that prevents many women from improving their overall health. Most women lack the needed testosterone to get "bulky" so working with weights has more of a toning and strengthening effect on them. There are a myriad of other benefits that are accomplished through regular strength training that I will list below.

Keep that metabolism firing - Resistance routines help build muscle tissue. The more muscle mass you have, and the more efficient each of those muscles are, the more calories you burn on a day to day basis. Muscles are constantly burning calories, even when you sleep so many studies have proven that a resistance routine increases your metabolism for up to 24 hours after a workout. That means you will be burning more calories even when you are watching television or sleeping!

Prevent the effects of aging - As we age, our bodies are constantly deteriorating. This is a "use it or lose it" mentality that is imprinted in our genes. The body feels that it should cut away excess materials if they are not being used. Unfortunately for a lot of people, this makes them more prone to injury such as fractures and sprains not to mention an increased risk of arthritis and osteoporosis. Strength training has been proven to increase bone density, ligament and muscle strength, etc. The more of your muscles you move and use, the longer they will stick around to help your body stay healthy!

Diabetes prevention - Muscles actually also help your body improve its insulin sensitivity so you can ward off diabetes as you age as well.

Posture - A well-rounded strength training program also improves your posture which can help ward off structural pain such as back pain or tense/tight joints.

Keep Your Balance - A major risk facing us as we age is our decline in balance and coordination. As we age, it is natural for our bodies to become less nimble and more prone to falls. This is a leading cause of injury for seniors. By practicing strength training, you will be increasing your body's balance and coordination, helping you long into the later years of life.

Men don't usually need motivation to hit the weights as that is what they generally head for first when they enter a gym. If anything they need to improve their overall fitness with other aspects of fitness such as yoga, flexibility and cardiovascular exercises. Women on the other hand tend to shy away from weights as they are either unsure of what to do with them, or they are afraid of getting too muscular. A personal trainer can help design a program that will help round out your physical fitness program and make you a more overall healthy individual!

Enjoy the Journey!

I touched on this topic a bit back in my "Motivation" post a little while back, but I want to further elaborate here. In today's society, majority of us are always looking for the quickest, easiest, most efficient way possible of getting to their goals. I think it is all part of human nature to make things go faster. In today's society, we drive faster, we use things like microwaves to cook our food faster, we use PVR's to skip through commercials, we use the internet and e-mail to send data faster and easier.

One aspect of our lives that has been hit by this most drastically could in fact be diet and exercise. You see it every day on TV and hear it on the radio ads. Pills that make you lose weight, diet plans promising you will "Lose 10 pounds in 10 days", workout systems that promise to drop inches in days, or your money back.

My point here is that there is a major difference between programs like some of the diets you see on TV compared to something like a well-balanced diet and regular exercise. Now any program that you can follow consistently and enjoy it is up to you.

These fast acting diets on TV that you see play right into the idea that people want fast results, with little to no effort possible. "Hey look, I lost 40 pounds, and I was still able to eat cheesecake!" Sure, you may have lost a bunch of weight by following this program, but how many people do you know that have stayed on Jenny Craig for 5, 10, or 15 years down the road? They don't! People get complacent and eventually gain that weight back, I have seen it with coworkers, and I am sure you have too.

So back to any exercise program, you ask how this is different right? If you are serious about getting active and getting fit, go out and create a program for yourself that works. Find something that fits into your schedule and is fun and works for you!

Back on topic. What is my point here you ask? Dieting or some silly exercise equipment that you purchased may get you short-term results, and you may even enjoy it for a little while, but is this something you are going to do for the rest of your life?

The title of this post is "Enjoy the Journey". I know, after all of this rambling I am finally back on track here. If you want a long, healthy, pain and drug-free life, you are going to have to exercise consistently for the rest of your life...period! Get the 7, 10, 20, 90-day schedules out of your head. Sure, you can set yourself some short-term goals, for example, "I want to lose 10 pounds by my vacation in 60 days" etc. But once you are done those 60 days, then what?

You have to find something or a wide array of somethings that keep you interested and motivated to continue for a long, long time. The reason why I have stayed consistent with my exercise regimen is that I have kept lots of variety in my program as well as exercise at the same time every day, weekends included!

Enjoy the journey you are taking. If you have to spend an hour or so of your time every day, five to six days a week for the rest of your life, you better find something that interests you and keeps you coming back for more. Beyond that, enjoy the time you spend working out. Get your mind set in the right frame. There are not a whole lot of people who like that exhausted feeling they get from working out, and just dread going to the gym.

Set your mind and be in the moment so that when you are doing those jump squats, or bicep curls, or going for a 5km run, and that lactic acid is building in your muscles and you are out of breath, remind yourself that you are now a healthier person because you made this choice to exercise!

Motivation

This post is to give the readers an array of ideas, tips, and tricks that I have used in the past to help motivate myself to exercise. Everybody has those days that you are in absolutely no mood to workout at all! I am not going to beat around the bush here and let on like I do not have these days, because I do. I workout first thing in the morning before I go to work, everyday, so there are those long winter nights, when I go to sleep and it is dark and I get up around 6am and it is still dark. Those morning when it is so cold and dark outside/in the house, it would be so much easier for me to shut off the alarm clock, roll over and go right back to sleep, but I persevere and force myself to get up! Here are my tips that help me get through those mornings:

1) Set your workout schedule in advance: I make my workout schedules for a few months at a time. Not only that, but I schedule something for every day. With a schedule sitting in front of me when I get up in the morning, I know exactly what workout I have for that day so there are no surprises. This way, I sort of get myself psyched up the night before, visualizing what exercises I have the next morning. Not only that, but if I have a different workout every day of the week, I know that if I miss Tuesday, I do not have time to make up for it on Wednesday, so to complete my schedule, I have to get up and do it!

2) Set your goals...: Lets be honest here, if you set your schedule that you know right off the bat is going to be too hard for yourself, you are going to become discouraged and fail. If you are just getting started, make sure you pace yourself and listen to your body. If you do 20 pushups one week, then the next week you are feeling a little bit tired and push for 23 pushups but only reach 17 pushups do not beat yourself up over it or get discouraged. The fact that you are working out and got 17 pushups is far more important than sitting on your ass and not doing anything!

3) Keep your diet in check!: Being physically active, you are really pushing your body, you are going to get fatigued and worn out if you do not fuel your body with top-notch foods. Stay away from high-sugar junk food or greasy crap that contains empty calories. You want to fuel your bodies. Race car drivers do not fuel up their vehicles with Regular Unleaded, so you should not be fueling up with junk if you are wishing for your body to perform at peak performance. Plain and simple, eat fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins and healthy fats, you decide on how to make those delicious and choke 'em down!

4) Enjoy your workout!: I know this is probably cliched but it still works. There is an old Chinese proverb that states something like, "If you enjoy your job, you never work a day in your life!" This rings true for exercise as well. If you are not enjoying your workouts then there is not a chance in hell that you are going to stick with it day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.

Be in the moment as well. Forget all of the crap you have to do after your workout (laundry, dishes, etc.) and forget about any stress you had prior to your workout. Give yourself that hour or so every day as your time, and enjoy it while you have it!

Go find yourself something you enjoy and that you are good at. Because let's face it, if you are good at something you are much more likely to enjoy it. If you enjoy swimming, join a swim class. If you enjoy biking, go buy a bike or take a spinning class. This is not rocket science, just find something you like and do it as often as possible!

5) Don't be so cosmetic: Truly dig deep down inside your inner self and ask yourself why you exercise and eat healthy. If you have decided to make this lifestyle change to exercise and eat healthier just so you can look better, you are not going to stick with it, trust me! You should be more interested in living a long, healthy, painless, medication-free life! There are a myriad of benefits that are obtained from living a healthy lifestyle that I will discuss in a future blog.

Just remember that every single time you workout, you are healthier than you were before you started, and probably happier too!

EXCEPTIONS:

1) Take it easy when you are sick: Lets face it, even when you push yourself to workout, there are going to be days when you either have a cold or flu or are feeling just under the weather. If you really are not well enough to workout, fine. However, studies have shown recently that your body is actually better off getting even some mild exercise while you are sick, so get to it and do some light cardio or something!

2) Focus on the numbers, but not really...: First of all, you should be tracking all of your progress in resistance workouts such as weights and reps, etc. Do not become obsessed with the numbers and try and beat what you did the week before every week, but you should still bring enough intensity to improve yourself constantly. Doing less pushups one week is probably alright, but you should be prepared and psych yourself up to do better the next!

3) Don't become a diet freak!: We are all human beings, and we all love to indulge. The difference is, when you are living a healthy lifestyle, you should keep your indulgences to a minimum. Should you sit down and eat a bag of Doritos in one sitting, probably not. Can you have a small piece of cheesecake after dinner every once in a while? Absolutely! You are better off to have a treat every now and then rather than binging some time because it has been 6 months since you had a chocolate chip cookie.

4) Check yourself out: I said previously that you should not base your motivation strictly on your looks, and I stand by that. However, when you pass a mirror, give yourself a flex and remind yourself how hard you have been working. You should not solely base your motivation on looks, but its nice to see some results too!

Change...

As time continues to tick by, we are all busy with our lives; working, going to school, exercising, carrying on with a hobby, or whatever else it may be that you decide to spend your time on. Without getting too philosophical or spiritual here, we all have a set amount of time on this earth. Who knows what happens after we die, you make your own beliefs and assumptions on that, I am not going to do that for you. What I will do though is give you this one thought that you can chew on for a while.

"Change is inevitable. Changing for the better or for the worse is a choice. Don't worry, if you don't choose the choice will be made for you."

What I mean by this is that we are all changing. As we age, everyone and everything around you changes. Small changes happen every day, such as how you style your hair, or what you wear to work/school. The weather changes, the gas prices change, there are hundreds of small changes you see every day!

Our bodies and minds change every day as well. There may be small changes that go unnoticed from day to day, but over time, these small changes accumulate into noticeable differences. For example, if an individual was to be exercising and eating well and losing even 1/10th of a pound a day, they may not notice much change as they look at themselves in the mirror every day. However, in a few weeks time, you may see an old friend and they will comment on how well you look!

Everyone experiences these changes as well in people they have not seen in a while Maybe you have an old friend you have not seen in weeks/months/years and finally see them again and notice how much they have changed for the good or bad.

My point here, is that change in inevitable! Everyone goes through good changes and bad changes whether it be financial changes, health changes, social changes, etc. There are a lot of things in our lives that change from time to time that we have no control over, (gas prices for example, but that is a whole other topic on its own!) but there are many many ways we can all change our lives for the better by making proper choices.

Yes, I am getting back into that topic of choice again that I posted about previously. But in all honesty, the way you control your health/body changes is one of the most important changes you can control. Everyone ages, but only those that have their choices made for them actually get older...and a lot faster I might add. Your body will change, it is now up to you to decide if you want it to change in a good way, or a bad way.

Making the commitment to exercise and make healthy diet choices every day will encourage very good changes within your body. Every day you choose to get up and do a workout, you are already changing your body in a positive manner. Sleeping in late, eating terribly throughout the day, allowing stress to run your life, smoking, not exercising, overeating, staying up too late, these are all choices that you make that creates negative change for your body and makes you get old.

Relating back to that quote again, "Change is inevitable. Changing for the better or for the worse is a choice. Don't worry, if you don't choose the choice will be made for you" also means that not making a choice to change for the better by not exercising or making smart diet choices, trust me, your change will be chosen for you!