TRAINER TIPS
Cardiovascular Training Guidlines and Benefits
Guidelines
- Accumulate 30 minutes or more of any enjoyable activity at moderate intensity on most days of the week.
- Warm-up & cool-down slowly for at least 10-15 minutes, like marching in place, then perform light stretches provided on the strength training program sheet. (Very important!)
- Cardiovascular exercise may be performed 3-5 days per week. Build up slowly to even 5 days or more.
- Start at a low intensity and progress according to tolerance and duration, and use the Exercise Intensity
Scale or rating of perceived exertion (RPE), as a numerical value on how hard you are working.
» Exercise at an intensity of 11-13 as shown on the scale below of fairly light to somewhat hard.
- Try to accumulate at least 30 minutes on most days. However, you can start off with even 5-10 minutes and slowly build up to 60 minutes. This may also be achieved by performing multiple 10 minute sessions throughout the day.
- Choose any accessible, convenient, and enjoyable activity that uses major muscle groups like walking, cycling, marching in place, stool stepping, even Tai Chi, and gardening.
- CAUTION: If you feel dizzy, faint or experience unusual shortness of breath stop exercising. It may be a sign that you may need to decrease your intensity, but if it persists contact your physician.
Benefits
- Improve overall quality of life
- Maintain or improve cardiovascular fitness
- Prevent falls and fractures
- Prevent or modify chronic disease, hypertension, obesity, intra-abdominal fat, osteoporosis, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- Promote muscle strength, flexibility, and balance
- Promoting social contact
- Relieve anxiety, insomnia, and depression
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Are you a morning, noon, or evening workout person? Which time is best? Does it matter?
What time of day is best for working out? It all depends on your goal. A recent official statement from the American
College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) states that if your goal is strength, than afternoon or early evening may be optimal, where
performance in strength has been shown to be most impressive during these times of day. ACSM gives the possible
explanation that the body temperature is higher during this time and not only strength performance but also decrease risk of
injury during this time of the day.
However, ACSM notes that findings show that the male hormone testosterone response to weight training, and post
testosterone levels were highest in the earlier parts of the day.
The report concludes, “This suggests that in contrast to strength performance, the muscle-building potential of weight lifting may be at its peak before noon”. The bottom line is that for most of us the best time of day is whenever we can fit it into our busy schedules.
By looking at our schedule and scheduling an appointment to exercise, no matter what time of day will have a benefit on your health and fitness.
- Gregory Cloutier
Abdominal Training Part I
We have all heard the numerous infomercials and seen the glut of magazines claiming to have the secret to perfect abs. Most of the add claims are claiming that you really don’t have to do much work on your part or watch your diet. Also, what is often asked by everyone is “what is the best exercise that I can do to get rid of this”, as they point to or pinch the fat around their middle. First, there are no abdominal exercises alone that can shrink the excess fat around your stomach to flatten or give you that “six pack”. Performing all the sit-ups, crunches, ab-wheels, and ab machines in the world will only build a strong abdominal wall, but do little if anything to make them flat or more visible. The only possible exception would be if you did them continuously for 20 to 30 minutes at a pace that raises your breathing and heart rate to 70 to 85% of your age predicted maximum. If you think this sounds like cardiovascular exercise, you would be correct. Working on the best mid-section that you genetically can achieve requires a consistent three-way approach to the goal.
- Healthy Diet: That excess bank account of fat around your waist is extra savings of calories. In order to shrink those savings you need to start decreasing your daily deposit or calorie intake by about 250 calories. Start by removing one or two high-calorie, low nutrition items, like one
soda a day.
- Cardiovascular: Increase your physical activity by at least 30 minutes (e.g., raking leaves, briskly walking a dog, playing a sport) each day to burn an extra 150 to 250 calories (depending on your body weight and intensity of the activity), or start a cardiovascular exercise program at
the gym (e.g., treadmill, stationary bike, elliptical machine). Combined with the nutritional 250 calorie withdrawal from your fat cell account you are up to a 500 calorie deficit, or about a pound a week, which is a safe amount of weight to lose.
- Resistance Training: The goal should be to gain as much lean muscle as possible. Muscle requires a great deal of calories just to support our selves and to move us about. Thus, it may be possible to burn more calories throughout a 24 hour period just because we are building larger
and stronger muscles. This would include a full body routine 2 to three times per week with abdominal exercises as a minor part of the routine, but necessary to develop both strength and endurance for postural stability and muscle size for deeper ridges.
Download the entire PDF file for Abdominal Training Part 1
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Abdominal Training Part 2
Now that you have mastered some of the basics to abdominal training it is time to progress to some more challenging exercises. The key to abdominal training is to combine three types of training routines. One type of training should be exercises performed with less weight and more repetitions (i.e., 15 to 30) to develop muscular endurance. Another would be to incorporate an external resistance so that you may only be able to perform 8 to 12 repetitions. This will help develop larger muscle bellies of the “six pack”, which in turn will make your abs more visible. The third method would be to incorporate a more functional isometric or static training one that requires you to stabilize your torso as you perform upper and lower body movement patterns. From the previous article we know that recent research shows that by performing abdominal exercises on a stability ball you add a balance component, which increases the nervous system’s stimulation to the abdominal muscles to maintain balance and perform the exercise. However, if you have been doing this for a couple of weeks, now is the time to add resistance to the exercise by holding a weight or by using a cable. To create variety of training stimulus try to alternate your training by performing 8 to 12 repetitions on some days and 15 to 30 on another day. The exercises (1-5) below are some examples of how you may add resistance and variety to your abdominal training. Choose one, two, or three of these and perform 3 sets of varied repetition and weight ranges as previously mentioned. Exercises 6 through 8 are some examples of functional isometric stabilizing exercises, which are a progression from the bridging exercises that were highlighted in “Abdominal Training Part I”. Perform one to two set of 8 to 12 or 12-15 repetitions in your ab routine.
Download the entire PDF file for Abdominal Training Part 2
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Abdominal Training Part 3
After you have mastered the exercises in Abdominal Training Part I and II you should be able to add some variety and challenge to the exercises. This may be done by adding resistance through the use of gravity or external forces (e.g., medicine balls, dumbbells, tubing, or cable). Adding resistance is just one way of increasing the challenge and training stimulus. However, increasing the need to balance while performing the exercise adds additional demands, and perhaps function, on the whole trunk and hip area (core), which is the emphasis of the exercises below.
Download the entire PDF file for Abdominal Training Part 3
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My doctor told me that I have a high body mass index (BMI)−should I be worried
that my health is at risk?
Many health care providers and scientist use BMI, which is the ratio of body weight to height squared (kg/m2), as a tool to predict an individual’s health risk from being over or under weight. A BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 is regarded as normal, 25 to 29.9 is considered to be over weight, and 30 or greater is classified obese.
However, BMI does not factor in body type or composition. For example, using BMI, two individuals who are 6-feet, 225 pounds, would be classified as obese. But, one is physically active, does resistance training, and is lean and muscular. The other is a sedentary couch potato, which gives these two people very different physiques and health risks.
According to a report in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, a simple waist circumference (taken at the narrowest point on the waist between the bottom of the sternum and the umbilicus) may be a better indicator of cardiovascular health risk than BMI. Simply put, a waist size of 40-plus inches for men or 35-plus inches for women indicates high health risk. Under 35 inches for men and under 33 for women indicates good health. This makes measuring your waist size an easy, reproducible self check on your health risk. Waist measurement, along with BMI, is just one of the many factors related to developing a chronic disease (such as heart disease, cancer, or diabetes). Other factors that may be important to look at when assessing your risk for chronic disease include:
• Diet
• Physical Activity
• Blood Pressure
• Blood Sugar Level
• Cholesterol Level
• Family History of disease
The bottom line is don’t be a couch potato. Try to be more physically active. To find your BMI online, go to:
www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/bmi/calc-bmi.htm
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Abdominal Training Part 3
After you have mastered the exercises in Abdominal Training Part I and II you should be able to add some variety and challenge to the exercises. This may be done by adding resistance through the use of gravity or external forces (e.g., medicine balls, dumbbells, tubing, or cable). Adding resistance is just one way of increasing the challenge and training stimulus. However, increasing the need to balance while performing the exercise adds additional demands, and perhaps function, on the whole trunk and hip area (core), which is the emphasis of the exercises below.
Download the entire PDF file for Abdominal Training Part 3
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Developing A Strong Back
Click here to download a PDF Trainer Tip from RevFit trainer Greg Cloutier about developing a stong back.
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