Best Fitness Blog

...Travis Webb

The human muscle system is a continuous network of muscle throughout your entire body. There are muscles of different sizes, shapes and functions. All of which allowing us to move from place to place and perform daily functions. Your metabolism is greatly affected by how much muscle you have and how active you are being.

A simple way of thinking about how muscle works is this. Muscles are made up of cells, these cells need fuel to function. If you have a lot of fuel (body fat) in your body you need more muscle in order to burn that fuel. The more you move around, the more fuel the muscle cells need to keep you moving. Therefore the more muscle you have and the more you move the more fuel you will burn.

To gain muscle throughout your body evenly it’s important to develop a full body workout routine that can be performed throughout the week. Each muscle group should be worked on a regular basis to promote balance and even strength gains. This will also allow for more body fat reduction in problem areas such as your mid section. Weight training will help to promote muscle growth or maintenance. Cardio will ask your existing muscle to function more. Do your best to make a balance of both and you will see more results from your metabolism.

...By Karli Taylor

As I have mentioned earlier, cardio-respiratory training burns the most calories in the shortest period of time.  The downside, however,  is that it only burns calories while you are doing it.  If I told you that there was a way that you could extend that increased calorie burn and enjoy burning calories all day everyday, would you be interested?  I thought so…

Resistance training is the key to increasing the amount of calories that you burn at rest.  Resistance training, or weight training will not only make your body stronger and more toned, but by increasing the amount of lean mass on your frame, you are actually increasing your resting metabolic rate.  One pound of lean muscle tissue can burn up to 10 times more calories per day than a pound of fat tissue.

Don’t worry, you don't have to be in the gym for hours on end to see results. You can see significant improvement in your strength with just two or three 20- or 30-minute weight training sessions a week. That frequency also meets activity recommendations for healthy adults, which call for strength training at least twice a week — in addition to at least 150 minutes a week of moderate aerobic activity.

If these benefits aren’t enough to get you excited to pump some iron, keep reading. Lean muscle mass naturally decreases with age. If you don't do anything to slow down the muscle loss, your resting metabolic rate will slow down and you will gain fat without really changing your eating or exercise habits.  Weight training, however, can help you reverse the trend  at any age. Studies have shown increases in muscle mass in people up through the age of 85 years old! 

... by Karli Taylor

As the temperature drops outside, more and more of us are bringing our workouts in from the cold. After walking, running or cycling outside for months, the unchanging scenery from the cardio deck can get boring pretty quickly. Don’t worry, there are quite a few ways to make exercising indoors more exciting until the snow melts next Spring.

If you exercise at home on a treadmill or other piece of equipment, try playing games with the timer. I know that countdown timer can seem daunting when you are stuck indoors, but if you use it creatively, it can make the time pass much more quickly.

The next time you get on that treadmill, walk at your normal pace for 5 minutes. Every 2 minutes thereafter, add one notch on the incline until it gets to its highest point. Since most treadmills have anywhere from 10-20 levels on incline, your whole workout could be complete by the time you reach the top! You do play a similar game with the resistance on a bike or an elliptical.

Speed intervals are also a good way to pass the time. You can use the time for this by speeding up for 30 seconds every 2 minutes, or for 2 minutes every 5. Another way to time intervals is with your iPod or your TV. If you watch TV while exercising, speed up for the commercials. If you listen to music, speed up every time the chorus plays. You get the idea, right?

If you belong to a gym that has group exercise classes, try a few of those. Feel embarrassed that you are uncoordinated or afraid that everyone else will be better at the activity that you are? Stay in the back of the room until you get comfortable or bring a friend who is also a novice. Once the music starts and you start to sweat, all of those worries will go away and the class will be over before you know it.

Finally, if you want to spice up your exercise routine, make an appointment with a fitness professional to learn something new. Challenging yourself to do something completely different will not only keep you from getting bored, it will also accelerate your fitness progress!

... by Karli Taylor

First and foremost, there is a distinct difference between our abs and our core. Our "abs", or what we refer to as our abs is actually one muscle- our rectus abdominus muscle. It is one small part of the whole area between our rib cage and our pelvis that we know as our "core". I will delve into that at a later date, but for now let’s talk about that six-pack, washboard or whatever other name you may have for it.

This may be the area of the body where we as fitness enthusiast make the most mistakes in training. Let’s go through a few basic ground rules for training our abs -

• More is not better! Your rectus abdominus is made up of fast twitch muscle fibers. So what you say? Well that means that it responds best to low reps- yup LOW REPS- like 8-10 at a time. So much for those devices that allow you to do 100 crunches without straining your neck...POINTLESS. Your best bet is to do 3 or 4 sets of 8-12 crunches for your 6 pack. That's it. You can train your deeper core muscles after these surface ones are tired- but that’s a whole discussion in itself!
• Abdominal training should always come LAST. Some people think that you should train your abs first while they are "fresh" in order to get the best results. It’s ok if that’s the only thing you are training that day, but if you are doing another body part- do that first. Your abs provide structural support for other exercises. If you tire them out, you will not be able to perform your best and may hurt yourself in the process.
• You CANNOT spot reduce. If you have excess fat in your abdomen, you can't just train your abs! This excess fat will burn off more efficiently if you train your whole body and add some intense cardio- BUT
• Diet is the key. No matter what you are doing in the gym, the only way to really get definition in your middle is by watching what you put in your mouth. Eating smaller meals often throughout the day will help turn your keg into a 6 pack!

I know that I have thrown a lot of info at you, and you may have some questions. Feel free to ask away!

... by Karli Taylor

Let's talk about stretching. Why do we stretch? Some people think that it will prevent injury. Some people think it will prevent soreness. What if I were to tell you that the only thing stretching does is make you more flexible? Yup- that's it. So if you participate in a sport that requires flexibility- like gymnastics or even golf, then stretching will help your performance. But runners, skiers, baseball players- unless you are tight or imbalanced, stretching will not help your game.

Now Stretching does have its place- I don't want to be known as the anti-stretch trainer. If you are recovering from an injury, you should surely stretch. Why? Put simply, a healing muscle tends to be tighter than a normally functioning muscle, and like I mentioned earlier, if you are tight- STRETCH!

But when should you stretch? Every time I go to a race or a sporting event I see people lined up before the start stretching. I want to grab a microphone and scream at everyone! Stretching before an event will make you weaker. It will loosen up a muscle that is about to produce power- not a good thing. Think about a rubber band. When will a rubber band give the hardest snap back? When it is new or when it has been stretched out a few times? Make sense?

Before any event, warm up by moving dynamically. A dynamic warm-up is not a mile jog or walking a bit before the start. It consists of a series of exaggerated motions that take all of the joints about to be used through their full range of motion. Unlike stretching, dynamic warm ups do not require that you hold any one position for more than a second or two. For example, before a run take 10 or 15 steps each time lifting one knee up and pulling it into your chest. Turn around and walk back kicking your straight leg out in front of you each step. Follow that up by walking with a butt kick. Doing these 3 simple warm-up drills will prepare your body for the stress of hip flexion, knee flexion, hip extension and knee extension- the primary joint actions used while running or walking!

Static stretching, or holding a stretch for 30 seconds, comes after you run or work out. Can you ever stretch during a workout? Again, if something becomes very tight- go for it. Or, in the case of weight lifting, stretching the opposing muscle to that which you are training will actually make you stronger! Try it if you don't believe me. The next time you are weight training, stretch your biceps in between sets of a tricep exercise, or your quads in between sets of a hamstring exercise. Let me know what happens!

... by Karli Taylor

Shin Splints, or pain in the front of your lower leg, can creep up on you when you start building mileage. First things first- if you are running on a treadmill, make sure that you have the incline set to at least 1.0. For some reason, all treadmills are set up so that 0.0 incline is actually downhill! This will put undue stress on your shins and knees when mileage starts to get up past 2 miles.

If you are an outside runner, shin splints will occur if you have weakness in the front of your lower leg (tibialis) or tightness in the back of your lower leg(calves). To prevent this annoyance, make sure that you stretch your calves after every run, and on off days try the following exercises to strengthen your shins:

1. Sit on the edge of a chair and tap your toes on the floor with your heels planted- tap hard to create stress. Sounds simple, but it will prepare your shins for the stress of running.
2. If you have a resistance band of some kind, sit on the floor with your legs out in front of you, loop the band around your feet and point your toes while pulling back on the band. Point and flex 20-25 times then rest.

Another thing that may be contributing to your shin pain is your foot strike while you run. Focus on striking the ground with the balls of your feet instead of your toes. Toe-running will tighten your calves right up, and tight calves lead to weak shins!

Ladies- if you wear high heels all day long, do NOT come home and run right away. Give yourself some transition time to get used to your sneakers. Going straight from high heels to pavement pounding will put those shins at risk.

Any other pains creeping up on you as? Let me know and I'll try to help you fix it!

Cross Training ... by Karli Taylor

The weather gets nice and we all just want to run (or cycle or swim or hike) outside. Every year I encounter people who freeze their gym memberships for 3 months and stick to their outdoor sports. I get it- I really do, but now I'm going to tell you why that's not such a great idea...

By just running (or cycling etc), you are doing 2 things that will work against you in the long run- you are creating imbalances and overuse injuries and you are quickly running toward a training plateau.

First let's talk about the imbalance thing. Though your body will become very efficient at the sport you gravitate towards during the summer, you are using the same muscles day in and day out. These muscles, over the course of the summer, will grow unusually tight. This tightness will put you at risk for muscle strains, pulls and even tears.

In addition to overusing certain muscles, you start to under use or neglect others. The muscles that you neglect will lose strength also putting you at risk for injury.

Now onto the training plateau- like I said earlier, your body will become very efficient at your sport of choice. For a while you will see gain after gain. Surely all of this repetitive running is good for you if you get faster each week right? WRONG. This improvement will inevitably stall- your body will become so efficient at running that you will need to run for hours to actually get a workout! I don't know about you, but I don't have 3 hours a day to run to burn a few extra calories.

So what's my point? My point is that playing outside is GREAT. I applaud all of you for being dedicated to your sport- but be informed as well. Treat yourself to at least one day off each week and at least 2 days of cross training. If you are a runner--cycle, if you are a swimmer---run. Shake up your cardio routine to get the greatest gains possible. I'd be willing to bet money on the fact that if you replace 2 running workouts each week with a bike ride, you will be a better runner by the end of the summer than you would be if you just ran.

Also- don't forget about resistance training. I know it's often a drag to be inside in the nice weather, but if you can squeeze in 2 30 minute sessions each week, you will not lose strength or muscle quality. It will be enough to keep you from losing all of your progress, and you can focus more on making gains in the gym when the snow comes back.