Friday, March 30, 2012

Exercise, stop making it a chore!

Nobody enjoys taking out the trash or doing the dishes or doing the never ending pile of laundry. Most people don't even enjoy mowing the lawn or going grocery shopping. Chores aren't fun. So I ask you then, why are you making your work outs a chore? Working out shouldn't be a punishment for you. I think most people see it as a disciplinary action for letting their bodies get out of shape. STOP THINKING THAT WAY! If you aren't making your work outs enjoyable you won't stick to it and you will never see changes in your body. Here are a few tips to help change your mindset:

1. Workout in a place that gives you good vibes.
If you hate the gym then you will NEVER enjoy working out in the gym. Ever. Shop around a little bit before you commit. If it doesn't feel good to you, you will certainly HATE it even more when you start paying dues every month to sweat there (or not because you probably won't end up going anyway). There is nothing wrong with working out at home. If you are more comfortable there, you are more likely to stick to a workout program. My suggestion, if you choose to work out from home, is find a trainer that will come to you to show you how to do this effectively and safely. Some of the best clients I have I train from their home. It is amazing what you will make yourself do when your comfortable with your surroundings.

2. Find something you love.
If you hate walking on the treadmill for an hour, then stop. Going to the gym and spending all that time on a piece of 'cardio' equipment is a waste of time anyway. Find the exercises you enjoy doing (mind you I'm saying "that you enjoy doing", not the exercises you find easy to do. If you aren't challenging yourself you won't get results.) and make a circuit out of them. Try a Spin class. Make your workouts work for you. If you like it, your chances of sticking with it greatly increase.

3. Define the reason 'Why'.
Why are you working out? Do you even know? How can you measure results when you haven't even set a goal? Make short, achievable goals for yourself. Write it down on a sticky note and take it with you to the gym. Put it on your water bottle so you always look at it every time you take a drink. If you see your goal you are much more likely to achieve your goal.

4. No workout works without the proper diet.
No matter the caloric expenditure, if you are leaving the gym and going straight to Whataburger thinking that an awesome source of protein is a hamburger, think again. Fast food is a fast way to sabotage all of your hard work. Eating healthy doesn't have to be strenuous or boring. Just eat a little of everything from every food group several times a day and watch your metabolism sky rocket. Exercise programming and proper diet go hand in hand. You can't successfully accomplish one without the other. 

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

DOMS, what is that?

DOMS or, Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, is the acronym we give to the feeling your muscles have the next day or maybe even two days after a really great or really strenuous workout. For most of us, DOMS is exactly what we need to tell us that our time in the gym was well spent. Do we need to feel sore to get results? No, there are a lot of ways to program a workout so that you don't get sore and it certainly isn't mandatory to see health benefits. Being sore is also nothing to be wary of. That is your body rebuilding itself to make it stronger.
Let's talk for a second about why we actually get sore. The basic component of EVERY single muscle in your body is built up of a bunch of strands wrapped around each other. These strands are called myofilaments. These myofilaments wrap around each other to form myofibrils (last fancy word I promise) which is what actually gives muscle that striated or strand-upon-strand look. If you lay all of the fingers of your right hand in the spaces between all the fingers of your left hand this is exactly how those filaments are layered in muscle. When we do any sort of weight training or even any sort of aerobic exercise we actually tear those filaments. It isn't a bad thing to do this because your body will actually come back and repair itself making that muscle bigger and stronger which can be seen by the eye over time because we get bigger arms, legs, shoulders, back etc. This rebuilding process is also why we have found that muscle confusion is really the only way we keep seeing strength gains. Your muscle rebuilds itself so to protect it from getting torn in the same way. So when we take a rest from our workout due to DOMS it is important to come back to the gym with a different work out in mind because your body has already prepared itself and you won't get any more results from the same old workout.