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I'm sure you've heard the saying, "a calorie is a calorie," and that when weight loss is the goal, you can probably loose weight on a 1,200 calorie/day diet whether it is 1,200 Twinkie calories or apple calories. At this point, you might be thinking, "Cool! I'll go on the Twinkie diet!"   Our bodies are smarter than that though, and I say, thank goodness. I know - I'm no fun at all :-). Last week at the grocery one of my kiddos held up a box of Twinkies and had the audacity to ask me to purchase them. I nearly burst a vessel in my forehead trying to restrain myself from smashing the box with......
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Being that it is summer, and there are vacations, kids home from school, camps, a lot of running around in circles...sometimes a workout is hard to knock out, even when intentions are high. When that happens, I have a 30-minute, total body workout that requires very little equipment, yet will leave you dripping in sweat. Wanna hear it? Here it is... You'll need:  a set of 10 or 12lb wts (lighter if you like), a resistance tube 5-10 minute warm up @ 40-50% max heart rate Set 1: 10-14 Burpees (also called pop squats) 3-way lunges w/ dumbbells: Start with weaker leg leading. Take one lunge forwa......
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Stumbled upon a few deals I'd like to pass along: 20% off planners! For all of you planners out there (you know who you are, planning each workout weeks in advance), get a head start on school year planning at MomAgenda. MomAgenda is offering 20% off small School Year books (use code: schoolyearsmom) Visit MomAgenda.com, offer expires 7.31.2011 *P.S. I LOVE MomAgenda planners. Seriously, love them - totally created by moms, for moms. Enough said. EatingWell magazine has a new book out: EatingWell 500-calorie Dinners for $22.45 (10% off the regular price). While you are planning workouts in you......
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Check out this video if you are unfamiliar with trigger point therapy... TPR Therapy, Ironman competitor Have you ever wished you could afford a personal masseuse? One who could come to your home, preferably daily, to help relieve you of the knots and muscle tightness that inevitably occur from daily workouts and, well, being a mom? In search of a solution to my IT band issues, I tried a chiropractor (not money well spent), stretching, massage therapy (therapist too gentle to release deep tissue), and my O.D. The O.D. provided the most valuable information: without proper biomechanics, the bod......
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The mysterious " fat burning zone " continues to confuse many gym-goers. The theory goes something like this: working out in a "zone" of intensity that is less intense for at least 20 minutes will burn more fat calories than calories from carbohydrate. Is this true? Yes and no, but mostly no. You actually burn more calories from fat right now, sitting still, reading this post, than you do on the treadmill. That is because in the resting state, the body burns a higher percentage of fat calories. As you crank up the exercise intensity, you burn a little less fat per calorie. However, it really c......
Jul

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Whether you are a die-hard gym-junkie or a “start and stopper” (you start a fitness program, follow it diligently for several weeks or months, then stop), or somewhere in between, no doubt you’ve hit a point when you were either:

  • Tired of exercise
  • Tired of the gym
  • Tired of your routine
  • Tired of not making steady progress…

I could add more, but I think you get the point: at some point, your exercise routine, no matter how regimented (or not) it is, might get stale. Psst…I have a secret: An often over-looked, but very important, component of that plan is “recovery” time!

Recovery time is built into fitness plans to allow the body time to rest. During this built-in rest time, lots of good stuff happens. Muscles rebuild themselves and metabolic changes take place at a cellular level. There is a lot going on when we exercise that we may not feel or see. Without recovery days, the body can’t properly rebuild and repair. Miss these important rest days enough times, and several things may occur:

  • Burn out
  • Injury
  • Lack of progress (you won’t see further adaptations – you’ll “plateau”)

Follow this “Rule of Thumb”: 1-2 days of rest per week, not necessarily in a row. For weight training, switching to a cardiovascular activity the following day, or training different muscle groups, will allow the muscles previously trained time to adapt and recover. The same goes for cardiovascular activity: after several days in a row of cardio, a day of rest or cross-training is a good idea. This will give you a chance to work different muscles and allow the muscles typically used a chance to rest. So if you are a runner, cross-training with cycling or swimming gives the “running” muscles a chance to rest. This is why Triathlon training is often called the perfect “triad” — cross-training is built in!



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