Why Fitness Programs Fail

It's late January now, and you've been making your way to the gym 4 days per week for 3 solid weeks. Not only do you hate the crowds, and hate the treadmill, but you haven't lost a single pound of weight. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

Expecting to loose 25 to 30 pounds by summer suddenly doesn't look so promising anymore ... especially after the fruitlessness of all that hard work.

Unfortunately, this is an all too common January scenario.

What is going on here, and why?

First, the good news: you're making more progress than you think. The most difficult part of becoming fit is simply fitting it into your busy life. Now, there are lots of tips and tricks for doing exactly that, but if you're attendance is good now, you've cleared (at least temporarily) the hardest hurdle. Credit yourself with a win.

Second, the good news gets even better, because you have lost some body fat ... you just don't see it because you've been measuring body weight (on your scale) and not body fat (done with skin fold calipers). In fact, one of the biggest mistakes people make when beginning a fitness program is not having fitness assessments taken at regular intervals. Especially at the beginning of fitness programs where lots of physical adaptations are taking place: bone densities are increasing; neurological pathways are being formed; and muscle tissue is growing. All of this is terrific, and increases your metabolic engine, but it also ads lean body mass to your frame that frequently offsets the body fat loss, so you don't see that change on the scale!

And that becomes discouraging.

But don't let it be: you're doing better than you think. I have eight more tips like this all queued up for Saturday's 2:00 PM Seminar, but you'll have to come by to get the rest of the story!

I will, however, leave you with one more good one.

Focus on Pure Fitness levels for February. This is actually something best done at the very beginning of an exercise program, but will help keep you motivated for the next few weeks. Particularly if you want to loose weight, pick 3 fitness related goals that have nothing to do with the scale: total pushups; distance traveled in 6 minutes on the treadmill; resting heart rate; total body weight squats; crunches in one minute ... whatever. Never mind the reading on the scale for the next 4 weeks; just focus on fitness. If your build it, the weight will come ... off.

Frozen Friday Fitness

It's always been a few degrees cooler than actual, but I just had to capture the near nothingness on my deck's thermometer this morning. Officially, it was -27 at the airport, though my reading was -35! I have never personally seen this little red on it in the 16 years we've had it!

So, what's a Minnesotan to do when it's 20 below outside?

Well, as it turns out lots!

Here are my top 10 things to do when it's nothing short of damned cold outside.

1. Defrost your freezer. Box or bag up all of your freezer items an move them to the garage, deck, patio, or your car. They will stay plenty frozen for the 12 or 15 hours it might take to defrost your freezer. Hopefully, you'll need to take a flight of stairs or two in the process to burn a few calories! And while you're at it, thaw out and prepare at least one of the items you bought because it's good for you, but you just haven't gotten around to preparing. We all have them, and you know what I'm talking about: liver, frozen brussel sprouts ... that bison steak. Also, check the expiration dates on anything pre packaged. If it's expired, just throw it out!
   
2. Drink. And drink a bunch ... of water! Temps this cold reduce humidity levels indoors and out. Heating systems dry it out even more! And because of the cold, most of us don't seem thirsty, so we tend to hydrate less. Got a slight headache? Maybe you're dehydrated. Sip on a hot cup of green tea, or a cup of hot water if you need something warm in your hands. Otherwise, plan to consume at least 8 ounces of water before each meal today.
   
3. Bake some squash or yams ... the more yellow or orange the better. In 20-some years of working with clients on diet, the yellow and orange vegetables tend to get neglected more often than almost anything else. Technically classified as caretenoids, they are low in Saturated Fat and Cholesterol, and a good source of Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol), Thiamin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Calcium and Magnesium. They are also a very good source of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Potassium and Manganese. Complete nutrition facts here, for baked with added salt, so you can/should reduce your sodium intake by cutting back on (or eliminating) the added salt ... especially if hypertensive. Plus, your oven will add some heat to your home!
   
4. And while the oven is hot, Roast some pumpkin and squash seeds. Low in Cholesterol, they are a good source of Protein, Vitamin K, Iron and Copper, and a very good source of Magnesium, Phosphorus and Manganese. This food is, however, high in fat, especially saturated fats, so you'll want to sprinkle them on salads use sparingly in other dishes.
   
5. Go to the gym! With the New Year's resolutes out in full force, it's guaranteed to be warm and humid in there! Or call Fitness Together if you don't like the crowds or humidity, but really want to heat it up!
   
6. Book a trip to someplace warm ... like hot enough to require that you shed some clothing. Facing an immediate deadline for exposing otherwise well covered body parts will help keep you focused this Winter. Click here to connect with my good friend Renata at AAA for some travel tips.
   
7. Get some sun. Rarely does it get this cold with a lot of cloud cover. Grab a book, your notebook computer ... or whatever ... and find a sunny window to sit near for an hour or two. Some physicians believe that a good portion of our winter ailments are due to sun derived vitamin D deficiency.
   
8. Women, schedule your annual breast exam. While October is breast cancer awareness month; if you missed it then, schedule it now.
   
9. Men, check your prostate. While heart disease is still your best chance of checking out early, cancer is #2 and colon cancer is one of the likelier villains. Very treatable when caught early; very deadly when not. Pick up the phone right now and get it scheduled!
   
10. Register for my Fitness Fundamentals Seminar NEXT SATURDAY! You don't need to go or call anywhere cold; just click here to book your seat! Or, refer a friend, co worker or family member to the seminar and pick up a Free Fitness Together Personal Training Session for each seminar registrant you refer!
    

So, even though it's not (Rio de Janeiro forecast) 80 degrees outside, there are still plenty of things to do to stay fit and healthy!

Navigating the January Gym Jams: top 10 tips

It happens every year. One of the top New Year's Resolutions year in and year out is getting fit and living healthier. Tens of Thousands of Resolve Resolutes join gyms to make it happen. Most of them will be gone by March, but they're here now, and cannot be neglected. Here then, are my 10 top tips for making your workouts effective within the present river of resolutes.

1. Go Early. Way early. Particularly on the weekends, traffic in the bigger, busier fitness centers doesn't really get annoying until after 9:00AM
2. Plan for working bodyparts instead of specific exercises. You will regularly bump into unexpected contention for equipment as you navigate through your workout. Make lemonade out of lemons by training the same bodyparts on new/different equipment rather than wasting time waiting around for your 'regular' equipment to free up.
3. Give your self a bit of extra time to deal with diversion & distractions. More people and less equipment availability will mean more 'hunting' time than normal. Add an extra 10 minutes of time to your workout to handle the unexpected.
4. Exercise by proximity. As you are finishing up with an exercise, don't look further than you can throw your towel for the next piece. Chance are, if you need to walk more than 50 steps to get to your next exercise, it will be gone by the time you get there.
5. Don't go too far from your equipment. Be sure to leave a towel & water bottle on your equipment to help mark territory.
6. Turn around slowly, and always look before turning. Neophytes are unpredictable and carry bars, plates, and dumbbells in unimaginable ways. Save yourself a headache and look before moving.
7. Perform large and multiple muscle group exercises. They burn more calories and can better optimize your workout time by hitting more muscle tissue. Additionally, they tend to be among the least used pieces of equipment in the gym. Examples here are good old fashioned flat bench bench presses; barbell squats; and Barbell Rows.
8. Plan to do some cardio both at the start of and at the end of your workout. The warmup and warmdown are both important by themselves, but in planning for two cardio events you'll double your chances of getting the equipment you prefer.
9. Don't expect that loaded bars are being used. Gym newbies are notorious for leaving bars loaded even after long abandoned. If you see equipment that appears to be abandoned, it probably is. Stand nearby your potential find, and look in 360 degrees for anyone willing to make eye contact with you. If you don't see anyone, just ask someone near you if they've seen anyone on the equipment. If they haven't, consider it yours!
10. Don't go at all! You'll still need to exercise, but use January and February to broaden your fitness experience with outdoor activities. It's been an outstanding year for both snow (cross country skiing, and snowshoeing) and ice (most outdoor rinks were open 2 weeks early this year).
    

Or, Give me a call and we'll train you in private to avoid all of the above!

Essential Holiday Eating Tips

I'm sure a lot of you are as sick of me ranting on Holiday Eating as much as I am of writing it!

But we still have a bit of December do deal with. We just need to get through the next few weeks! And remember, we're not trying to loose any weight right now; just not gain any. Net Zero from November 1st to January 1st.

Right now, we just need to think clean.

Henry Ford wanted a V8 engine. Actually, he demanded a V8 engine. For years, his engineering team told him that it couldn't be done. It wasn't possible. The rest, of course is history as the V8 engine has been the most popular engine in automotive history.

Think Positive. Think Clean

Regarding the Holiday blues, Holiday stress, Holiday food fest, and the rest,

replace negative thoughts like ...

• There’s nothing I can do to stay healthy during the holidays.
• That’s just the way I am during the holidays.
• The holidays make me feel so stressed.
• I can’t take the time to work out until after the holidays.
• I Can’t…………………I Must……………….If Only

... With proactive thoughts such as:

• I’ll find alternatives to overindulging this happy season.
• I can choose a different approach this year.
• I control my own feelings at all times and I choose to feel great!
• I want to take the time necessary to make sure I stay healthy during the holidays.
• I Choose……………….I Prefer……………I Will

The point is: "Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you're right either way."
-- HENRY FORD

A few concrete tips:

• Substitute non fat yogurt or non fat cottage cheese for sour cream in cooking and recipes
  
• Wear your tightest, most form fitting pants to dinner parties and/or tie a string around your waist under your shirt that will not budge with the bulge. They'll help keep you conscious of overeating.
  
• Have a healthy, protein rich snack before going to cocktail or dinner parties. Or a meal replacement shake. The high fat content appetizers won't look so good of your not hungry.
• Don't keep trigger foods in the house; just don't buy them!
  
• Do not stop your regular exercise program. If you don’t have a regular exercise program, get one immediately!
  

Metabolism Boosting Exercise Plan: Frequent Quickies

December is one of the toughest months of the year for Fitness Professionals . As if busy lives, work schedules, and family affairs weren't enough, extra travel, holiday parties, out of town guests, and office gatherings all add to the normal daily stresses. Making time to exercise is always a challenge, but this added pressure can be a nightmare for trainers trying to keep their clients on track!

Of course, in the blindered world of a Fitness Professional (because no matter what the question is, exercise is almost always one of the best answers), we'd argue that if you're life gets so stressful that you don't have time to exercise, you really can't afford to NOT exercise.

But, enough's been said on that. So what I will pitch as a solution to December exercise deprivation is the notion of Frequent Exercise Quickies. That is, rather than spending 75 to 90 minutes working out 2 or 3 days per week this month, plan instead for training 3 or 4 days per week (one extra) for just (much shorter) 45 to 55 minutes.

Normally, we coach clients (and you should plan) for a minimum of 10 to 15 minutes warming up before your workout and 30 to 45 minutes of cardiovascular work following your session. Along with your 45 minute session, this give you have a standard 75 to 90 minute workout. While that doesn't seem like a huge time committment to us, it can certainly seem intimidating when there's cooking to be done, the in-laws are inbound, and you have an unfinished gift shopping list.

A 50 minute workout, on the other hand, is short, sweet, and mentally conquerable. Heck, it's not even a workout ... more of a workoutling ... a workout too small, cute, and incomplete to be a real workout. Get in, get it done, and be on your way. The key, of course, is that if you reduce you cardio and resistance effort volumes, you'll really, really need that additional exercise quickie per week!

Training for 50 minutes 4 times per week (200 total minutes) instead of 75 minutes 3 times per week (225 total minutes) also has other advantages.

For one, you raise your metabolism one extra day per week. Not only do you burn calories while exercising, but you'll burn additional calories recovering from the exercise after your workout. And this extra day of recovery effort more than covers for the reduced total volume (25 minutes).

Additionally, the 4th workoutling per week gives you one more boost of energy to make it through stressful days, and another shot of endorphins to make the holiday stress more tolerable.

If you're training with FT, your session pace is always quick and with aerobic elements, but if you're getting your (regular or extra) workoutlings on your own, keep these things in mind for effective exercise quickies:

1. It's just 50 minutes, so plan for being seriously committed for the entire workout; it goes fast!
   
2. Rest no more than 1 minute between sets
3. Drink plenty of water
   
4. Wear your headphones, and don't make eye contact with anyone else in the gym (no time to get pulled away into a conversations)
5. Look ahead, and plan your next exercise before you're finished with your current one
6. Have an alternate exercise in mind with alternate equipment to keep you moving should your equipment get taken before you get there
7. Go relatively light with high repetitions (20+) on the 1st set of any exercise (missing out on a proper warmup will increase the risk of injury, so you'll need to warmup in-line)
8. Plan for no fewer than 10-12 repetitions on any exercise (again, making the workout more aerobic in nature to compensate for reduced cardio)

Save your Joints! Practical Advice for Cardiophiles

I played some open hockey yesterday, and spent the better part of my bench time explaining the significance of resistance training to another old fart complaining about his knees and knee pain. Hockey, you see, like running, swimming, and racquet sports is just plain tough on the joints.

So I thought I would share with you some specifics on how, and why resistance training is critical for good joint stability ... PARTICULARLY if you do a lot of 'pounding' cardio work.

Within the context of joints, exercises can, basically, be separated into two types: closed chain exercises and open chain exercises. Not surprisingly, the analogy is derived from the links on a chain (bike, necklace, bondage, whatever ;-). The links of a chain are closed when there is tension on the chain; open when the tension is relieved.

At the joint, there is a lot going on:

• Ligaments connect bones to other bones;
  
• Tendons (attached to muscles) attach to bones and
• There is a soft tissue that functions as padding, or bushing between the bones
  

As you exercise, muscles contract, or shorten to pull your bones in the desired direction. And if you didn't know this already, muscles ONLY contract. All body movement is ONLY through the contraction of muscles: muscles never push anything, event though your trainer is constantly (and quite ironically) shouting push, push, push all the time!

And during an exercise like running, an individual knee joint undergoes the repetitive process of opening and closing. First, it is supporting the load of your bodyweight as you land and push off of it, and then it dangles somewhat freely as you extend your foot forward to take your next stride.

Thus, this is what we call an open chained exercise: just as the links in a chain 'open' when tension on the chain is relieved, the link between the tibia (lower leg) and femur (thigh bone) is 'opened' when you run (or walk). Then, the tibia and femur are quite literally 'smashed' together (closed) upon your foot's impact with the ground. Only the soft tissues (meniscus), ligaments, and tendons keep the bones from contacting each other under this load.

So, while something like running is terrific and necessary for your heart health, it is actually quite abusive on your joints. Repeat this movement over years and years (or a marathon or two) and you are virtually guaranteed knee, hip and back problems later in life.

Conversely, an exercise like leg curls is considered a closed chain exercise: during the complete range of motion of the exercise, there is never any 'open relief' between the chain of bones at the knee joint. The tendons, ligaments, and muscle groups are constantly 'pulling' and 'tightening' the joint. The Chain link is Closed without opportunity for impact.

The moral, of course, is that balance and variety is the key: strength training and cardio cannot be safely separated. Anyone who runs a lot, plays hockey, or otherwise performs a lot of open chained exercises simply needs to incorporate additional closed chain resistance training to help maintain good strength and stability around the joint. Depending on your age and fitness levels, this type of strength training should be performed at least two days per week.

Additionally, proper form on closed chain resistance exercise also helps assure good skeletal alignment ... particularly for you cardio beasts. Because even the slightest skeletal MISalignment is magnified with thousands of open chained repetitions.

Finally, muscle mass, bone density, and flexibility all decrease significantly once adults turn 30 ... and then accelerates with age. So not only will you help ensure the soundness of your joints through resistance training, but you'll hold on to your lean mass and strength!

Resistance training is the ONLY way to reverse this degradation.

And it's not just the knees. Racquet sports (tennis, racquetball), softball, and swimming does the same thing for the shoulders. These open chained exercises are terrific for you heart and lungs, but not so gentle on the joints. Even something as potentially harmless as bowling or curling can cause knee, shoulder, and lower back problems without strong joints.

I'll also make a small confession: I'm firmly convinced that I would NOT have ruptured my biceps tendon playing hockey back in August had I been more consistent with my strength training over the summer. Back then I was rolling off of a long summer of cycling, skipped strength training for a few weeks, and ended up injured.

Where is the Fitness Savings Account?

October tends to be benefits open enrollment month for a lot of larger organizations. Bureaucracy intact, this is your one and only chance to modify deductions and elections for the entire year!

As is common knowledge, the federal government supports a couple of tax savings programs in the form of Health Care Savings (HSA) accounts and Childcare Savings Accounts. Employers implement the programs by allowing pre-tax income to be placed into accounts that will be used either for Health or Child care. That way, the subscribing employee doesn't pay income, fica, or fuda tax on the account funds.

All that's all good, but my Big problem, is that there aren't currently any provisions for Fitness Related Expenses. I had lasik surgery to correct my vision a few years ago. That was covered under the HSA. My teenagers are currently in braces. That's covered too. Need teeth whitened? No problem.

So, with these, apparently cosmetic items covered under Health Care Savings Account rules, why aren't Fitness Related Expenses!? I haven't looked, but wouldn't be surprised if you could get a boob job with HSA account funds! What the heck!? Spending money on your heart health, reducing your risk of disease and cancer sure seems to make a lot better sense in an HSA than braces! Don't get me wrong, I am delighted that the braces are covered (it helped soften the bill a bit), but as a 'family-related' allowance it doesn't do much for childless couples, singles, or empty nesters.

Why aren't gym memberships, bicycles, and personal training services included as well!? What could possibly make more sense when looking for ways to improve fitness levels, reduce health care costs, and put a bit more cash into ailing American pockets during an economic meltdown!?

Many employers have recognized the benefits of exercise and offer reimbursement for regular exercise attendance. At Fitness Together, we actually don't participate in these programs. Quite frankly, the twice weekly exercise employers and health care providers recognize might be acceptable for a fit individual simply looking to maintain their fitness levels, but is grossly inadequate for anyone looking to make significant changes in their health and fitness. We simply give our clients a free session when they train 12 or more days per month. We avoid the paperwork, and our session value is a lot more valuable than the 50 bucks employers and providers offer.

BUT, if my clients, big box gym goers, and anyone spending money at the bike shop could simply draw against an HSA accepting of fitness expenses, everyone wins! Employers and providers could eliminate the overhead of their one-off attendance reimbursement programs, and their employees could exercise tax free.