Fitness On a Budget #2

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Many of us have been trained to feel like we're not working out unless we're actually at the gym or using expensive infomercial equipment in our basements. The truth is that you can create your own workout anywhere, at any time.

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You don't necessarily need special equipment like a treadmill or elliptical machine to get a great cardiovascular workout. With a little planning, some of the daily activities you take for granted can become part of your exercise routine:

Get in extra steps whenever & wherever you can. Take a brisk walk every day, whether it's a path through your neighborhood or laps in a local mall. Take the stairs instead of the elevator or make a full workout of climbing the stairs. Sneak in extra steps whenever you can by parking farther away from your destination.

Pick up the pace as you do your household chores. Mow the lawn, weed the garden, rake the leaves or shovel the snow, but make the movements intentional and try to maintain a quick pace while you’re working. Even indoor activities such as vacuuming and scrubbing count as a workout if you increase your heart rate.

Don’t sit on the sidelines. If you have children, don't just watch them play. Join them for a game of tag or kickball. Walk them to the park. Dance. Take a family bike ride.

Dessert
Many of my clients are under the impression that an activity doesn't count as a real workout unless they're going for at least an hour. I'm not quite sure where this thought pattern originated, but it's not true. Feel free to break your workout into 15-minute increments throughout the day. Something is ALWAYS better than nothing, so get moving whenever you can.

About Cafe Physique:
The mission of Café Physique is to help clients reach and exceed their personal fitness and nutrition goals. If you’re in need of an a nutritionist in Atlanta or an Atlanta personal trainer – Café Physique is the perfect solution. We offer Atlanta yoga instruction, Atlanta prenatal workouts, and Atlanta personal training. We also have private sessions of pilates that Atlanta residents are raving about. We invite you to let a member of our Atlanta registered dietitian staff or personal training team develop and implement a realistic and healthy lifestyle plan to meet your personal goals.

When You Just Don't Feel Like Working Out

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Make it to the gym more often.

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Some days, you just won’t feel like working out. Maybe you haven’t been able to get as much sleep as you need or you've been having some stress at work or in your personal life. No matter the reason, sometimes you just aren’t in the mood for moving and sweating. Whenever this happens to you, try these strategies for working up the desire to hit the gym:

Remind Yourself of Your Goals - Start thinking about why you started exercising in the first place and what the end results will be. Do you want to lose a certain amount of weight? Get more toned? Have more energy? A quick reminder of why exercise is important to you can be just the motivation that you need to eek out another set of reps.

Plan on Reducing Your Workout – If you feel that you won’t have the energy to do your complete routine, tell yourself that you will just do half of the work out. If you usually jog four miles, plan on just doing two. If you are weight-training that day, focus on just doing the compound exercises while leaving out the isolation exercises. Once you get going, you might discover that you actually have the energy to do your full workout.

Don’t Go Next Time - Give yourself permission to skip the next work out but not this one. If the next work out rolls around and you still don’t feel like going, you actually might be doing yourself some good by skipping it. Feeling consistently turned off by exercise is usually a sign of overtraining, and giving your body more time to rest can actually help you reach your fitness goals faster.

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The trickiest part of any exercise plan is motivation. You can know all of the exercises and the proper techniques, but if you aren't inspired enough to get to the gym, it won’t do you much good. Figure out what motivates you most, and make sure that you use that motivation to hold yourself accountable for regular physical activity. I'm not opposed to an occasional self-bribe either. It goes something like this, "If I workout at least 4 times this week, I'm going to treat myself to a spa pedicure next Friday after work." Just make sure that your rewards are not food-based, and you'll be good to go.

About Cafe Physique:
The mission of Café Physique is to help clients reach and exceed their personal fitness and nutrition goals. If you’re in need of an a nutritionist in Atlanta or an Atlanta personal trainer – Café Physique is the perfect solution. We offer Atlanta yoga instruction, Atlanta prenatal workouts, and Atlanta personal training. We also have private sessions of pilates that Atlanta residents are raving about. We invite you to let a member of our Atlanta registered dietitian staff or personal training team develop and implement a realistic and healthy lifestyle plan to meet your personal goals.

Exercise More at the Office

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Don’t let your cubicle interrupt your fit lifestyle.

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Your body is designed to be exercised, but physical activity can be tough to come by when you work at an office and spend most of your day parked in front of a computer. That’s why all office dwellers should do what they can to get in more physical activity, even while they are at work.

Rethink Your Commute – If you are fortunate enough to live just a few miles from where you work, you might consider riding your bike to work. True, this might mean that you have to wake up a bit earlier, but the extra exercise you get in every week will be profound.

Take Frequent Breaks – I know it’s easy to get caught up in what you're doing, but it's vital that you take breaks regularly. It won’t just help you produce higher quality work, it will also give you they opportunity to get in some physical activity. By taking a quick stroll around your office building during your breaks, you increase the amount of physical activity you get during the day and get your heart pumping enough to make you feel refreshed. These quick strolls can be an effective stress fighter too.

Replace Your Chair with An Exercise Ball - You’ll probably have to check with management to see if this is OK, but more and more companies are allowing, and even encouraging their employees to sit on exercise balls instead of chairs. Sitting on a ball encourages good posture, and actually activates some muscles in a way that regular chairs don’t because you have to constantly stabilize yourself. It might feel tricky at first, but after a little while it will feel just as natural as sitting on a chair.

Dessert
A fit lifestyle is all about small changes. Even choosing to get a little physical activity during your break instead of hanging out in the office kitchen or at your desk can be a huge leap in the right direction. If you concentrate on making tiny changes in how you do things, it will eventually add up to a slimmer waistline and a healthier you.

About Cafe Physique:
The mission of Café Physique is to help clients reach and exceed their personal fitness and nutrition goals. If you’re in need of an a nutritionist in Atlanta or an Atlanta personal trainer – Café Physique is the perfect solution. We offer Atlanta yoga instruction, Atlanta prenatal workouts, and Atlanta personal training. We also have private sessions of pilates that Atlanta residents are raving about. We invite you to let a member of our Atlanta registered dietitian staff or personal training team develop and implement a realistic and healthy lifestyle plan to meet your personal goals.

Overcoming Plateaus

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Always work towards progress.

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When you first started out with your fitness program, you probably found that you made big strides every week. You were always able to lift more weight, run longer and for greater distances, and stretch further than the week before. If you stuck with it, you have probably noticed these advancements becoming less and less pronounced over time. When you get to the point where you stop losing fat (even though you are a few pounds shy of your goal weight), or you don’t notice any improvements in your athletic performance, you have hit a plateau. Here are a few ways to work through it:

Slow Down – Obviously, you aren’t just lifting weight for the sake of the lifting weight. You want to grow stronger and become more toned, so you should lift slowly – making sure that each rep puts as much strain on your muscles as possible. Ideally, take about two seconds to lift the weight and two seconds to lower the weight.

Shake Things Up - If you have been stuck in a rut for a while, considering adding in a few more exercises or completely changing your routine. Your body craves variety, and switching up can totally change how your work your body.

Take a Break – It sounds counterintuitive, but sometimes taking a couple days off might be the best thing you can do for your fitness training. A plateau might be a sign that you are just overtraining. Take a couple days off, and see how you feel when you come back to it.

Dessert
I don’t want to advocate never being satisfied with your fitness level or how you look, but at the same time, it is OK to enjoy the satisfaction that comes with continually striving for progress. When you see that you making strides, you are more likely to stick with your fitness program and continue to integrate exercise into your overall lifestyle.

About Cafe Physique:
The mission of Café Physique is to help clients reach and exceed their personal fitness and nutrition goals. If you’re in need of an a nutritionist in Atlanta or an Atlanta personal trainer – Café Physique is the perfect solution. We offer Atlanta yoga instruction, Atlanta prenatal workouts, and Atlanta personal training. We also have private sessions of pilates that Atlanta residents are raving about. We invite you to let a member of our Atlanta registered dietitian staff or personal training team develop and implement a realistic and healthy lifestyle plan to meet your personal goals.

Why Exercise?

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Exercise can be a powerful way to improve your life.

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Sometimes I’m asked, “Why work out?” To these people, a healthy lifestyle seems like all work and no benefit, a constant struggle for nothing. But of course, nothing could be further from the truth.

So what do you have to gain by working up a sweat?

You Will Be Happier – Exercise will decrease you body’s supply of cortisol, also known as the “stress hormone,” and increase your amount of dopamine, which helps increase your sense of well-being. In fact, some studies have shown that working out just three times a week for half an hour can be just as effective as anti-depressants for relieving the symptoms of depression.

You Will Be Smarter – Scientists used to think that we lose brain cells as we get older, and nothing can be done about it. New research, however, shows that regular exercise can actually grow new brain cells, helping improve memory, concentration, and even intelligence. That sort of puts a new spin on the idea of a “scholar athlete.”

You Will Sleep Better – People who work out spend more time in deep sleep, which allows them to concentrate better throughout the day. Sleeping well can also have a positive effect on stress, making your everyday problems feel that much more manageable.

You Will Have More Energy - You will be able to approach every task at your job with zest, getting more done in less time, and still having plenty of energy to have fun and take care of your responsibilities at home. If you have never experienced it, trust me, it’s a great feeling.

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You might be wondering why I didn’t include “You Will Be Happier With Your Body.” Well, pretty much everyone knows this reason, and let’s be honest, this is the reason most people decide to start working out at all. But it’s important to remember that hopping on the treadmill doesn’t have to be all about slimming your waistline. Fitness can be a major part of improving your life in every way - physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Get High Quality Zzzzz's

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There is no substitute for a good night’s sleep.

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Good sleep gives you energy, helps you recover from exercise, builds muscle, and helps you stay focused throughout the day. Some studies even show that sleeping well can act as an appetite suppressant. For most of us, there really is no way to sleep in as late as we’d like every day, but there are ways to ensure your night’s sleep is as restful as it can possibly be.

Avoid watching TV before bed. – When you stare at a bright screen like a computer monitor or television, your subconscious mind thinks that it’s still daytime, and therefore takes longer to settle down. Try to do something that doesn’t involve looking directly at something bright thirty minutes before you plan to hit the hay, like read.

Stick to a schedule. – I know this isn’t always possible, but if you can, wake up and go to sleep at approximately the same time every day. A regular rhythm will get your body to know the difference between “awake time” and “sleeping time.”

Make your bedroom totally comfortable. – Make sure the shades are drawn, the room is at just the right temperature, and your covers are nice and soothing. Anything that you find uncomfortable about your room will detract from your sleep quality.

Don’t exercise right before bed. – If possible, don’t exercise within three hours before going to bed. Exercise is stimulating, and will keep your brain racing. But if nighttime is the only time you have to workout, by all means, exercise at night. Working out after dark is always better than no exercise at all.

Dessert
I have to admit that I don’t always “stick to a schedule.” On that rare morning where I have nothing to do, I like to stay in bed and sleep in as much as possible. And I have no problem staying up late if I get the opportunity. But sleeping is just like dieting: the occasional indulgence won’t really do any damage. It’s once your find yourself perpetually bleary-eyed and addicted to coffee just to get through the day that you have a problem.

Dealing with Fitness Sabotage

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Don’t let your family and friends lead your fitness plans astray.

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If you are like most people, you've probably cheated on your diet because of your family and friends. Maybe someone from the office brought a batch of homemade cookies and insisted that you try a few because they were so good, or your friends made you miss a workout to go see a new movie. While an occasional treat or missed workout isn’t a big deal, it can become a problem if it happens too often. Here are a few ways to deal with fitness saboteurs:

Assume the best - Your family and friends aren’t doing these things because they are malicious; they probably just don’t understand. Don’t let your fitness plan become a source of stress in your social life, and assume that your loved ones actually have your best intentions at heart.

Just tell them - While not everyone appreciates the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, some might stop pressuring you to ruin your fitness plan if you just tell them how important it is to you.

Meet them halfway - If you're being pulled to a movie, ask if you can see a later showing so you can still spend time on the elliptical. If your co-worker is always bringing in pastries full of saturated fat, just have a little nibble and throw the rest away. And don’t feel bad about wasting food. It’s better in the trash than on your thighs, right?

Dessert
Fitness, like any long-term goal, is really just about overcoming a series of obstacles. Sometimes those obstacles come in the form of those closest to you. But at the same time, family and friends can sometimes be a fantastic source of support. If you find that certain people are sabotaging your diet plans, try to surround yourself with a more supportive crew so you can have the confidence you need to achieve your fitness goals.

Stick to a Schedule

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plan (plān) n. = A scheme, program, or method worked out beforehand for the accomplishment of an objective

In order to meet your healthy lifestyle objectives for 2007, you will have to create a plan.

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Tip #6
Stick to a Schedule. Put yourself on a schedule. If you decide to go to the gym three days a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, mark it on your calendar and make it a part of your weekly routine. You will end up going more often than if you didn't have a schedule and just went when you felt like it.

Read the June 23, 2006 Cafe Physique posting for related information on this topic: Your Time Is Precious

Continue to check out Cafe Physique throughout the month of January to catch the remaining 4 tips!

Dessert
Starting January 1st, I committed to the following workout schedule:
Mon - Chest & triceps
Tue - Cardio (60 minute Spinning class)
Wed - Back & biceps
Thu - Cardio (60 minutes on Stair Climber)
Fri - Legs
Sat - Off
Sun - Shoulders & Cardio (30 minutes on Treadmill)

About Cafe Physique:
The mission of Café Physique is to help clients reach and exceed their personal fitness and nutrition goals. If you’re in need of an a nutritionist in Atlanta or an Atlanta personal trainer – Café Physique is the perfect solution. We offer Atlanta yoga instruction, Atlanta prenatal workouts, and Atlanta personal training. We also have private sessions of pilates that Atlanta residents are raving about. We invite you to let a member of our Atlanta registered dietitian staff or personal training team develop and implement a realistic and healthy lifestyle plan to meet your personal goals.

Avoid Peak Gym Hours

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Don't spend any MORE time worrying about what you did or did not do last year. Turn your sights toward tomorrow, and start making plans for your healthy living journey.

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Tip #2
Avoid Peak Gym Hours – Crowded gyms can be frustrating and since fitness facilities often see a spike in membership and attendance after January 1, try to work out during off-peak hours. Talk to the gym staff and find out when the busiest times are so you can try to avoid them.

Continue to check out Cafe Physique throughout the month of January to catch the remaining 8 tips!

Dessert
Next up on my list...Conquer my addiction to pancakes. In order to do this, I'm going to limit myself to having pancakes only once per week during the month of January. For those of you who don't know me personally, this is a BIG deal...trust me. I'll worry about February - December later.

About Cafe Physique:
The mission of Café Physique is to help clients reach and exceed their personal fitness and nutrition goals. If you’re in need of an a nutritionist in Atlanta or an Atlanta personal trainer – Café Physique is the perfect solution. We offer Atlanta yoga instruction, Atlanta prenatal workouts, and Atlanta personal training. We also have private sessions of pilates that Atlanta residents are raving about. We invite you to let a member of our Atlanta registered dietitian staff or personal training team develop and implement a realistic and healthy lifestyle plan to meet your personal goals.

Gym Etiquette

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Pay MORE attention to gym etiquette when working out in a public area. Some of the behavior that I've seen at the gym lately is causing me to scratch my head in wonder. Are people really this rude? Maybe (hopefully) they just don't know how to be a good gym rat. I want to make sure that none of my readers end up the subject of dirty looks and rolled eyes, so here's a quick down and dirty lesson on gym-related do's and dont's.



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DO:
- Put the weights back where they belong when you're done with them.
- Wipe your sweat off the equipment before you walk away (PLEASE!).
- Lend a helping hand. If you see someone who could use a spot, offer up your services.
- Allow others to work with you between sets if they are waiting for your equipment.

DON'T:
- Spend more than 30 minutes on the cardio equipment during peak times.
- Use this time to chat it up with all of the other exercisers - people are usually there to work, so be friendly but don't hog their attention.
- Grunt, yell, or curse. If you have to do all of that, the weight is aparently too heavy.
- Wear "hoochie" clothes to the gym. This is not the time or place to expose your implants of J.Lo rump.

Dessert
Unfortunately, the people at my gym that need to read this message the most will not be reading it. So I guess I'll still have to wipe the greasy guy's sweat off the leg press before I use it tomorrow.

About Cafe Physique:
The mission of Café Physique is to help clients reach and exceed their personal fitness and nutrition goals. If you’re in need of an a nutritionist in Atlanta or an Atlanta personal trainer – Café Physique is the perfect solution. We offer Atlanta yoga instruction, Atlanta prenatal workouts, and Atlanta personal training. We also have private sessions of pilates that Atlanta residents are raving about. We invite you to let a member of our Atlanta registered dietitian staff or personal training team develop and implement a realistic and healthy lifestyle plan to meet your personal goals.

Push & Pull

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Spend MORE time planning your resistance training workouts. There are many different ways that you can put together a workout "split" which is a term given to how you split up your routine - which days you train various muscles.



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One of the most popular splits is a 3-day push/pull routine. Pushing involves working muscles that require you to push against the resistance. Pulling is just the opposite - working muscles that require you to pull the weight.

Here is a sample push/pull split:

Mon: Chest & Triceps (Pushing)
Tue: Off
Wed: Back & Biceps (Pulling)
Thur: Off
Fri: Legs (Pushing AND Pulling)

The benefit of this split is that you are working your secondary (smaller) muscles on the same day as the primary (larger) muscles that utilize the secondary muscles.

In plain English...When you work your chest, you also work your triceps (secondarily), so by concentrating on triceps on the same day as chest, you are giving them a powerful work out. Conversely, if you worked chest on Monday and triceps on Tuesday, you would be at risk for OVERTRAINING because your triceps will technically have been worked two days in a row.

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I'll continue to put example splits and other workouts on this blog so that you can workout effectively with or without a personal trainer, so be sure to check back often.

Women are always asking me about my splits, and sometimes I hesitate to give them specifics. Why? Because I've found that once I tell somebody something, they stick to it like white on rice. It's never good to repeat the same workout over and over and over again.

Every now and then you have to shock your body by surprising it, so please feel free to use the splits and workouts that I provide here, but make sure you change them up at least every 6 weeks.

About Cafe Physique:
The mission of Café Physique is to help clients reach and exceed their personal fitness and nutrition goals. If you’re in need of an a nutritionist in Atlanta or an Atlanta personal trainer – Café Physique is the perfect solution. We offer Atlanta yoga instruction, Atlanta prenatal workouts, and Atlanta personal training. We also have private sessions of pilates that Atlanta residents are raving about. We invite you to let a member of our Atlanta registered dietitian staff or personal training team develop and implement a realistic and healthy lifestyle plan to meet your personal goals.

How Much Is Too Much?

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Spend LESS than 1 hour lifting weights. Unless you are planning to compete in a bodybuilding or figure competition, you do not need to weight train for more than an hour at a time.

After 45 -60 minutes of training weight training, the muscle building & fat burning hormones of most people begin to deplete while cortisol levels (fat storing & muscle burning hormone) increase.


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This is an important tip because I always run into people who automatically think MORE = BETTER, and that's not necessarily true. In actuality, if you are putting maximum effort and concentration into your resistance training workouts, your muscles should be utterly exhausted by the time you finish.

In other words, if you still feel like the Energizer Bunny two hours into the workout (because you can keep going and going and going and...), you're not pushing yourself hard enough. So, next time you're working out, crank up the intensity and reclaim some of your precious time.



Dessert
Isn't this great news?

Whenever I miss a workout, like I did today, it's usually because I feel like I just don't have the time. I'm often being squeezed by other commitments or sheer exhaustion from all of life's activities, so it's good to know that working harder for shorter periods of time is actually beneficial.

About Cafe Physique:
The mission of Café Physique is to help clients reach and exceed their personal fitness and nutrition goals. If you’re in need of an a nutritionist in Atlanta or an Atlanta personal trainer – Café Physique is the perfect solution. We offer Atlanta yoga instruction, Atlanta prenatal workouts, and Atlanta personal training. We also have private sessions of pilates that Atlanta residents are raving about. We invite you to let a member of our Atlanta registered dietitian staff or personal training team develop and implement a realistic and healthy lifestyle plan to meet your personal goals.

Take Charge of Your Metabolism

APPETIZER

Lift MORE weights. While cardio is a very important part of a healthy lifestyle, you should never under estimate the value of strength training. You can't have a well-rounded fitness routine if you're not including some type of resistance training to strengthen your muscles and speed up your metabolism.


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Metabolism is basically the energy that your body expends simply to keep you alive - the energy to think, breath and move.

As many of you have already experienced, our metabolism starts to slow down once we get in 0ur 30s, and it typically continues to decrease by about 5% every decade thereafter. So if you eat 2,000 calories a day and wear a size 12 at age 34, you will more than likely wear a size 14 at age 44 if you continue to eat 2,000 calories a day because you will be burning less calories.


Burning less calories as we age is attributed to the decrease in muscle. For every pound of muscle we lose, our bodies will burn as many as 30 calories less each day. Prior to menopause, women start losing about 1/2 pound of muscle per year, and this loss can sometimes increase to a full pound after menopause.

Lifting weights can actually reverse muscle loss, so it's not too late for you to get started!


DESSERT

I was introduced to weight training in 2001 by a girlfriend of mine. Before meeting her, I wouldn't have been caught dead by the machines at the gym, let alone the free weights. She turned me on to the benefits of lifting, and I've never looked back.

Once I started lifting weights, my body began to change in ways that I'd never been able to achieve with just cardio. Not only did my arms and legs start to tone up, but my abs benefited from the core strengthening moves that she taught me.

I had always thought that lifting weights would make me big and bulky, but I've sinced learned that this just isn't true at all. Most of those huge mega muscle chicks that you see in magazines or on TV, are taking extreme measures to look like that. For the average woman, like you and me, we wouldn't be able to get that way if we tried - not that we're going to be trying.

If you want to get started with lifting but don't know where to start, continue to dine with me here at Café Physique because I'll be posting more on weights soon.

About Cafe Physique:
The mission of Café Physique is to help clients reach and exceed their personal fitness and nutrition goals. If you’re in need of an a nutritionist in Atlanta or an Atlanta personal trainer – Café Physique is the perfect solution. We offer Atlanta yoga instruction, Atlanta prenatal workouts, and Atlanta personal training. We also have private sessions of pilates that Atlanta residents are raving about. We invite you to let a member of our Atlanta registered dietitian staff or personal training team develop and implement a realistic and healthy lifestyle plan to meet your personal goals.