Off The Fence

How to Keep Trim During the Winter Months

Gaining weight during the winter is a common problem. Lack of motivation to train plagues many of us that live in cold weather climates--this contributes to weight gain in the cold winter months. Here are a few things you can do to keep your weight down for the next several months:

• First thing in the morning, drink at least 16 ounces of chilled water. Why? Drinking chilled water starts your body working by forcing it to increase body temperature in order to warm the chilled water in your stomach--this also helps to increase your metabolism.
• Eat breakfast. Do this and you'll be more likely to make good choices later on in the day because you won't be making decisions while you're hungry. A morning meal will also boost your metabolism and keep your blood sugar at the proper levels. Think eggs, multi-grain toast, fruit, or a high-fiber cereal to fill you up.
• Increase your fiber intake. The great thing about fiber is that it adds volume to food without adding calories. Cut out the white bread and refined products and replace them with whole grain breads and cereal. Add plenty of fruit, vegetables, nuts, and beans.
• If you're a Leriken member now's the time to kick your training into high gear. The calories you would normally burn during outdoor summer activities will stick to you like stink on a monkey unless you consciously decide to do something about it--so train!

These are a few simple yet effective suggestions that can help to stave off the winter bulge, and the winter blues as well.

Benefits Of Physical Fitness

The benefits of physical fitness can be both mental and physical. Aside from making you look good, staying fit can have an effect on the way you think.  People who are fit tend to handle the stress of everyday life easier than people who do not have a regular exercise regime.

Being able to sleep at night is one of the great benefits of physical fitness.  Not being able to sleep can have a huge effect on your quality of life, from how you perform at work to developing health issues due to lack of sleep, and on the flip side you'll have more energy when you need it.

 Improving your cardiovascular system, the strength of your heart, increasing oxygen flow and blood flow are all major benefits of physical fitness.  If your heart is strong it can pump more blood, the more blood you have flowing the more oxygen can be transported to the areas that need it the most.

To feel the benefits of physical fitness you don't have to train for hours at a time. If done properly with the right amount of intensity 35-45 minutes three times a week can make all the difference in your life, it can truly be life changing.

Monitor Your Fitness

I purchased a heart monitor several weeks ago for my own personal training and I also encouraged my more advanced private clients to do the same.  I've trained for many years without using a monitor; the reason I decided to start using the device was to more finally tune my training.

Because I own my own training center it's important for me to always be evolving and learning about my craft, which is physical fitness.  One of my trainers recommended a book called "Ultimate MMA Conditioning" by Joel Jamieson.  Don't let the title fool you, it doesn't just apply the mixed martial artist(MMA), it really applies to anyone who is serious about their physical fitness.  

Jamieson acknowledges that many of the best concepts for developing athletic conditioning have come from the training in Eastern Europian countries during the cold war, and many of the concepts still apply today.  Although this book is intended for serious athletes it can also apply to intermediate and recreational athletes, as well as non-athletes who have a fair understanding of their training.  

The thing I really like about his approach is that he breaks the body down into systems: aerobic, anaerobic lactic, and anaerobic alactic system and then targets each system for repair; different methods should be used for the different systems.  Another interesting point makes perfect sense; if one of the systems is weak, then the entire system is weak.

With this kind of in-depth training a heart monitor really helps because it gives you an accurate look at what's happening inside your body.  One method called Cardiac Output  has been around forever and focuses on the aerobic system.  I'm sure everyone has seen Rocky, but no, this method doesn't require chasing chickens around, rather, it involves longer, slower training like jogging(road work), biking, swimming, hitting the heavy bag, or skipping rope. The important thing is to keep your heart rate  between 120-150bpm(beats per minute).  This method will increase the amount of blood pumped with each heart beat.  This is done by increasing the size of the left ventricle, which is sort of like a sack.  Think of a balloon filled with water; as it begins to stretch it can hold more water--same idea with filling the left ventricle with more blood.

If the heart beats too fast the blood is pumped out of the left ventricle too quickly to allow the sacks to increase in size, which is not a bad thing but now you're working the heart in a different way.  This why the heart monitor really helps because you can keep bpm exactly were it needs to be for the desired results.

The monitor also indicates when to resume your training.  Another method called Cardia Power Intervals again focuses on the aerobic system which requires you to perform a high intensity exercise such sprinting or hitting the heavy bag as fast as possible for 60-120 seconds, and then perform active rest. Active rest means light jogging, shadowboxing etc until your HR is between 120-130. Repeat 4-12 reps of power intervals and active rest. What this method does is instead of filling the left ventrical with blood, it increases the strength in our heart to pump more blood through the system.

So you can kind of see what he means by conditioning the whole system and how one system is linked to another. For more on Joel Jamieson visit www8weeksout.com