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Are You Making It Count?
Article Posted by Sherri Sacconaghi, May 15th, 2012
Challenge Yourself
Every morning that I go to the gym I see the same person on the elliptical, magazine in hand, slowly going through the motions. She does this for an hour. This makes me ask. Is she really getting the most out of her workout?
For many of us, time is a valued commodity and getting to the gym takes planned effort. If you are making time exercise, whether it be at the gym, at home or outside, make the most of it.
Sure there are benefits to any kind of movement, but for those of you looking to blast calories, build muscle, strengthen your heart and feel energized, here are some tips to getting the most out of your workout.
1. Change the movement. If you do the elliptical on Monday, try the treadmill or step mill on Wednesday. Take a spin class on Friday. Shake it up and keep it different. This will keep your body on its toes. When your body gets comfortable with a movement, it does not have to work so hard, therefore the benefits start to decrease. So change it up.
2. Change the Intensity. Amp up the speed on the treadmill for small increments. Start with a 2 minute jog and a 30 second sprint. Alternate this for 30 minutes. If you are on a walk outside, stop every 5 minutes and do a minute of squat jumps or jumping jacks. These short bursts of intense movements with help make your heart work harder, strengthening your endurance and blasting fat. Anyone can do anything for 30 seconds, right?
3. Slow Down. You are not making the most of your time if you are rushing through strength training. Slow down. Whether on the weight machines or free weights use a full range of motion and consider using a count of three to lift the weight and a count of three to lower the weight. This will allow the muscles to do the work, not the momentum of the movement. Muscles burn calories all day long so don’t skimp o this one.
Need a little motivation? Look at exercise as a challenge for your mind and body. Find the type you love to do and challenge yourself . Run faster, lift more, jump higher. When you have a goal to reach for it is easier to push a little harder.
Exercise with purpose and not only will you do good things for your body, you will also get the amazing feeling that comes with accomplishing your fitness goals.
Posted by: Sherri Sacconaghi
Certified Health Coach and Personal Fitness Trainer
www.themissionofnutrition.com
Ph: 503 621 7549
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Happy Mothers Day
Article posted by Sherri Sacconaghi, April 30th, 2012
I realized how rewarding little plan can be last year. After spending several Mother’s Days at a local amusement park with my kids, I finally admitted, spinny rides and cotton candy are not really my thing. I used to believe, if they were happy, I was happy. Usually true, but now I also believe, if I am happy, well, lucky them.
So after you receive breakfast in bed and flowers on your doorstep from your family, it is time to spoil yourself. This is a new thought for some women out there so here are some ideas to get you started. Oh and Dads take notice, you might be able to help out here.
As moms and we love our families, and of course you may want to invite them along on your Mothers Day outing. Whatever makes you happy. Do it. You deserve it.
Posted by: Sherri Sacconaghi One Step at a TimeOne Step At A Time Chris Bathke, MA CSCS http://www.elementalfitnesslab.com
It may have to do with the fact that juggling multiple thoughts and actions is stressful, and likely means we'll do a poorer job of it. Yeah yeah... try telling that to your boss I know. But it's a fact. Recent books on efficiency that I've seen all seem to touch on the subject of setting aside chunks of time to do only e-mail, then a time for filling out the TPS reports, of whatever it might be. Point being they figured out what your Grandmother considered common sense. Over the past year I've been learning and refining my approach to coaching nutrition, and many of the smartest people in that field, such as Dr. John Berardi, have incorporated knowledge from behavioral psychology and experts in neurological sciences. And what many of them say regarding the way we eat, and most other behaviors, is that habit is a big deal. We tend to eat the same things week after week and get accustomed to certain things, and when we alter that pattern what happens? We crave. So what happens when what we are used to, what we habitually eat makes us fat and unhealthy?
Some time back I came across an interview with Charles Duhigg, a writer that just published a book called The Power of Habit. His work centers mostly on exploring the science of how habits are formed and changed for success in business, but in it he references studies regarding how people turned their lives around by altering, among other things, what they ate. Among other things neurologists noted in studying the brain activity of subjects that you can apply to nutrition and fitness is this: 1. Changing one habit makes it easier for the brain to accommodate other subsequent changes. In other words quitting smoking will make it likelier that next month you'll have better success at stopping the nightly Oreo binge. 2. Change one habit at a time. Attempting to change more than 1 habit at a time will decrease the chance of it sticking, as the brain will want to fall back into old stable patterns, which demands less energy from the brain. 3. Our brains like to bundle actions together, which is known as "chunking". These chunks of actions quickly become routine, then habit. So if you come home from work everyday tired and reach for the cookies or wine your brain, partly in an effort to save energy, will group those actions together so that pretty soon you will crave that wine every night. Before long you notice your pants are fitting a little tighter. If we want to reverse habits such as snacking at night, according to science, and my experience helping hundreds of people drop fat, it's best to alter one thing at a time. Say for example deliberately stopping having wine each night but not changing what you eat or anything else. Just focus on not having wine and having water or tea instead during the week. After a few weeks it will get easier and pretty soon you won't miss it as much. You might still want it, and science shows that urge might never completely go away, but keep your attention on that one thing until it's not a big deal. Then focus on the next thing. The same lessons apply to fitness of course in that everyone who has ever spent time on an online fitness forum has seen dozens of questions from people who are trying to improve their running while improving strength while wanting to do Olympic lifting. If you need to improve your strength then do that. Later on you may be ready to work on endurance and so on. Whether or not they know what will really work to improve each quality is another matter, and why smart people read hire me to help them ;) None of this is new of course. A couple thousand years ago Lao Tzu famously said "A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step." |
