Blue Star Fitness Blog

“This is it! This year I am finally going get serious about getting into shape and living healthy!” Does this sound familiar?

Each year at this time millions of people just like yourself are making this very statement. The sad part is only a small percentage will complete their intended goal. Some studies have shown as little as 20% get the results they wanted.

Why is it that people think because the calendar changes to a new year that they can change a year’s worth of bad habits overnight? All of the potato chips, coffee, pizza, cakes and cookies don’t go away when the clock strikes midnight Jan 1.

Most people do not realize that losing weight or getting into shape is a complete life change. You have no chance of meeting your goal without the proper mental motivation. You must have an understanding that only hard work and dauntless courage get you to your desired fitness level.

Fad diets, quick weight loss programs and even drugs all come with a promise of losing weight without having to do any work.

Ask yourself, why did my last diet fail? Even if you followed it to the letter, chances are your diet failed you.

It has been proven through many studies that a healthy supportive diet along with a systematic exercise program are the only sure way to lose weight safely and effectively.

We have listed a few tips that will help you keep your New Years Resolution:
1. Understand that only a full commitment and hard work will get you to your goals.

2. Get professional help. A fitness expert has the skills and knowledge to design a fitness program that produce results.

3. Set small attainable goals. Changing the way you look and feel is a long slow journey that has a lot of ups and downs. Setting small goals will help show how much progress you are making and keep you motivated.

4. Speak with a nutritionist or a registered dietitian. These seldom used professionals can help with healthy food choices, portion control, and even cooking instruction.

5. Pick fun exercises. This is so very important to the success or failure of any fitness program. Activities that are enjoyable make it that much easier to continue to do them.

6. Mix it up. Although you may enjoy performing a routine, overtime it becomes boring and predictable making it less enjoyable.

7. Eat More, Eat Healthy! The more you eat and the healthier you eat the more calories you burn. 5 to 6 small healthy meals a day will boost your metabolism allowing your body to increase its energy output.

8. Drink lots of water. Keeping your body hydrated allows for the transport of valuable minerals and nutrients to the muscles and the removal of waste.

9. Be consistent. Set specific dates and times that you perform your exercise routine. This will keep you on track and committed to your goal.

10. Use the buddy system. Having a partner to train with will help keep you motivated to continue your pursuit of a healthier lifestyle.

Remember the key is to focus on the main goal which is to become the healthiest you can be in the upcoming year.

©January 2005 Blue Star Fitness

What is flexibility? By definition it means able to bend without breaking, adjustable to change, or capable of modification. In the fitness world it goes much deeper than that. To fitness professionals, flexibility means the normal extensibility of soft muscle tissue to allow a full range of motion at the surrounding joint.

Although it may seem boring and unnecessary, flexibility is a key component of a complete exercise program. The things we do in our daily lives, like sitting, cause some muscles to become short and tight while other muscles become lengthened and weak. This causes muscle imbalances, which adds undue stress to our joints. Flexibility training can alleviate these muscle imbalances and restore proper function to the joints.

The goal for flexibility is to gain proper extensibility in soft muscle tissue in order to produce movement around a joint in all planes of motion. Therefore a fitness professional should begin by performing a proper range of motion assessment. This will determine where the muscle imbalances lie and ensure that you receive a customized flexibility program.

An easy way to look at an altered movement pattern is to perform 10 squats with your hands over head in front of a mirror or in front of a friend. As you perform the squats check and see if your knees cave in or bow out. Do your feet turn out or flatten? If any of these actions take place, you are witnessing an altered movement pattern and undue stress on your knees and/or ankles. A proper flexibility program can correct these problems.

There are many forms of flexibility training, each is used to correct or maintain existing muscle conditions. Practices such as yoga and Tai Chi are forms of flexibility training as well as valuable exercise tools. Some forms of massage are also used as a way to manipulate muscle tissue in order to get them to relax and become more flexible.

The benefits of flexibility training include:

• Relief of stress around the joints
• Improved extensibility where the muscle and tendons meet
• Improved joint range of motion
• Correction of muscle imbalances
• Improved blood flow

We have had great success with three different types of flexibility training and feel that each of them has a place in a well-designed exercise program: self-myofascial release, active stretching and dynamic stretching.

Self-myofascial release or foam rolling is a technique that uses a foam roller or any hard surface to manipulate the fascia tissue of the muscle to break up knots or adhesions that cause altered movement patterns. These adhesions reveal themselves as tender spots when they are rolled. Holding these tender spots against the roller for 20-30 seconds will force the muscle to release. Over time, use of the foam roller will help to realign the fibers of the adhesion, which will ultimately improve the extensibility of the muscle.

For more information on our Foam Rolling: Self-Myofascial Release seminar, visit our web site.

The next form of flexibility training is called active stretching where the muscles are gradually moved into the full range of motion by contracting the opposite muscles (contracting the quadriceps to stretch the hamstrings for example). This allows for the targeted muscle to be moved around the joint without being inhibited. Exercises are performed for 8 to 10 repetitions by moving the muscle to the point where the stretch is felt then holding for 2-4 seconds. Each repetition try to get the muscle to move a little further through the range of motion.

Dynamic stretching mimics the movements that you are about to perform during your exercise session. For example, starting a kickboxing session by moving through all your punches and kicks and gradually increasing the intensity as your body warms up. Momentum and force are used to move the muscle through its full range of motion. This form of stretching can actually be used as a workout on it’s own because you are performing exercises to produce the force and momentum.

A custom flexibility program using one or all of these types of training should be performed before every exercise session. The human body is a highly adaptive machine that is constantly changing to meet the demands we place on it everyday. Over time muscles, ligaments and tendons begin to adapt to the positions and movements that they are placed in daily. The result of this adaptation causes distinct muscle imbalances that eventually can lead to injury. A properly designed flexibility training program can help alleviate these muscle imbalances and restore your body to its optimum function.

©2004 Blue Star Fitness

Are you tired of performing the same workout routine?

Has your workout become dull?

Do you get bored in the middle of your workout?

Here are five easy ways to boost your workout results while keeping the workout itself interesting.

Did you know that the human body is a highly adaptive machine that will automatically adjust to movements in order to find the path of least resistance? In order to perform any task the body has to recruit the best muscles available to complete the movement without restrictions or pain. If muscles are inhibited or tight, movements will become altered causing the body to recruit the next best muscle to complete the movement.

This concept also applies when you exercise. If you perform the same exercise at the same speed with the same amount of weight, eventually your body will adapt to your routine thus making your workout inherently less effective. In order to prevent your body from adapting to your routine it is important to change your workout every 4 to 6 weeks. If you are just starting out, stick with what you’re doing for now. It may take 3 months before you see significant adaptation and need to begin adjusting the variables described below.

There are many options to change above and beyond the amount of weight or resistance to keep your workout fresh. You can adjust the modality, volume, speed, frequency and the amount of rest thus creating specific adaptations in the body.

1.Modality: This is a fun way to boost your workout and one of our favorites because it allows you to incorporate all sorts of toys to upset your sensory perception and intensify your workout.

Stability balls, medicine balls, foam rollers, resistance bands, and steps are all great ways to raise the level of your workout. Professional training should be used before attempting to use any of these toys on your own. Most of the toys require an extreme amount of muscle and joint stability in order to perform an exercise safely. Stability balls are awesome because in addition to the target muscles of your exercise you also need to incorporate back and core muscles in order to maintain balance.

If you do not have any toys at your disposal, you can use your body to change the modality. Try doing a lunge to single leg balance - holding the balance for at least 2-5 seconds. Now take the same lunge to balance and add a biceps curl into a shoulder press. That will change your workout in a hurry!

The simplest way to change your modality, but by no means the easiest, is by closing one or both eyes and performing your workout without this key sense.

2. Volume: Changing the volume of your exercise routine will cause specific adaptations to occur throughout the muscle system. You can change the speed at which the muscle contracts or the amount of time the muscle can be held under tension before fatiguing. Volume is defined as sets multiplied by repetitions.

Although this is a great way to change your routine, it is important that you tailor the volume to your goals. Volume is also inversely proportional to the intensity of the exercise. It is almost impossible to safely perform a high volume exercise (lots of reps) at a high intensity (lots of weight). Keep this in mind when using the following guidelines.

If your goal is general fitness, we suggest 36-75 total reps per exercise at about 60% intensity. If you want to improve body composition and increase muscle, we suggest 27-36 total reps per exercise at 70% intensity. If you want to improve strength and power, we suggest 12-20 total reps per exercise at 85% intensity.

That said, don’t be afraid to phase your workouts. For example, spend a few months working on muscle endurance while changing other workout variables and then change your volume to focus on increasing muscle.

3. Speed: This rarely used or understood component is an effective training tool that will not only affect muscle strength but it can also provide an intense cardiovascular workout. A common reason exercise programs can become regimental is often people will continue to exercise using the same tempo. As you now know, the body adapts to repetitive movements very easily and this also holds true for the speed at which the movement is performed.

Muscles use three interdependent loading systems (eccentric, concentric and isometric) and altering the tempo can help improve the way the muscles function. Eccentric loading is when forces are decelerated. Isometric loading is stabilizing the forces being placed on the muscle. Concentric loading is exerting more force than what’s being placed on the muscle. Using a squat we can see how these loading systems work. The eccentric loading phase of a squat is the first movement lowering the body. The isometric loading phase is the time in between going down and pushing up. The concentric loading phase is when you push up out of the squat.

When speed is used to change an exercise, all three loading systems are used to gain specific adaptations to imposed demand in order to achieve the desired effect. Consider the following, if you are working on muscle endurance you want to use slower movements - a 3 second eccentric, 2 second isometric and 1 second concentric contraction for example. If you are working on muscle power you want to use explosive movements, completing the task as fast as possible. You can also spend time focusing on just the eccentric phase of the movement which is often overlooked in most traditional weight training programs.

4. Frequency: Of the many pitfalls that are made when exercising this one is the most misunderstood. For the body to gain the benefits of exercise it needs time to recuperate and heal. Constant use of certain muscles will not allow the proper breakdown and restructuring of the muscles. Often people will stick to a particular exercise routine and perform the same routine everyday not knowing that this could be the very reason their workout has stalled. Optimum results occur when exercises are held no more than 5 days per week with a minimum of 2 days rest. Exercising the same muscle on consecutive days is possible but results will be slowed due to fatigue and an increased chance of injury. Muscles need a minimum of 48 hours to recover following resistance training. If you want to lift weights on consecutive days, try a split routine working back, biceps and legs one day and chest, shoulders and triceps the next.

5. Rest: You should never have the feeling of being fatigued or tired after a workout. You should feel energized. Recuperating between sets and/or exercises has a tremendous effect on the outcome of any workout. Your body needs time to replace its energy stores. Adenosine triphosphate (or ATP) and Creatine phosphate (or CP) are the most used energy systems during an exercise session. In order to perform at an optimal level proper supplies of ATP/CP are needed. By adjusting the rest phase, you can regain ATP/CP supplies according to the exercise goal. When training muscle endurance, a 30-60 second rest is needed. If you want to build muscle, increase that rest up to 90 seconds. For strength and power, a rest of 3-5 minutes is required to completely restore your ATP/CP reserves. If this seems like a lot of time to you, don’t forget you can work one body part while you are resting another. Not only will you save time, but you will add a little more cardiorespiratory work into your routine.

Though it is easy to vary your exercise routine using these suggestions, we encourage you to take advantage of certified fitness professionals whenever possible. Fitness professionals can not only help you choose the correct exercises and make sure you are performing them safely, but also keep your workout up to date on the latest findings in the fitness industry. This will not only keep your workout fresh, but also state of the art. Fitness professionals can also insure that a systematic progression is made safely and effectively which will maximize your results while reducing your risk of injury.

©2004 Blue Star Fitness

1. If you eat less you will lose weight! This common myth causes more people to gain weight than just about anything. Eating 1 to 3 times daily will deprive the body of calories needed to keep the body functioning at an optimal level. However, eating 5 to 6 small meals packed with some protein, healthy fat and complex carbohydrates will boost your metabolism to burn more calories and keep you feeling full throughout the day.

2. Fad diets work! This myth is not only false but it also costs Americans millions of dollars each year. Fad diets may work in the initial stages, but over time the lack of calories, vitamins and nutrients will begin to have a damaging effect on your body. Fad diets often use the results taken after a few weeks of the diet and don’t take into account the long term effects that they have. Things such as kidney stones, insulin resistance and light-headedness are some common side effects of some fad diets.

3. Weight loss can be done quickly and with little effort! This is a frustrating myth that has many believing that you can lose weight in a short amount of time and sends many on an endless search for the elusive magic pill or quick fix gadget, often leaving people in the same situation as when they started. The only way to lose weight at a healthy and long lasting rate is to incorporate healthy eating and daily exercise into your life.

4. You do not have to exercise in order to lose weight! This is a dangerous myth! The only way to maintain an effective weight loss program is to build new muscle tissue so the body will burn excess calories. The more lean muscle tissue you have the more calories you burn even as you rest.

5. You can lose fat in one spot! The spot reduction myth absolutely drives people crazy. You know the saying “I want lose inches here in my hips or I can’t seem to lose this pouch”. Well the horrifying truth is no matter how hard you try, spot reduction is physiologically impossible. Only the body knows what areas need more or less fat to protect itself and only losing fat through a healthy diet and exercise will remove fat from those problem areas.

©2004 Blue Star Fitness