Five Fitness Myths Exposed

Many people come to me curious on the topics of health, fitness and nutrition. With so much information out there, it can be daunting to separate the truths from myths. A friend says one thing, a health/fitness professional says another. Who do you believe? In an effort to sort out of some of this confusion, I will address some of the most frequently discussed myths. 

 

MYTH 1: Stretching BEFORE a work out prevents injuries:

Studies show that stretching prior to activity can weaken the muscle by lengthening it to a point past optimal performance. This minimizes the benefits of strength training, cardio, and athletic performance.

 

DAVE Q SAYS:

 

Instead try dynamic stretches that mimic the specific movement patterns you are about to do. This will loosen up the joints for your activity as well as reduce chance of injury.

MYTH 2: Lifting weights will make you bulky: 

 Women shy away from heavier weights for fear they will become too masculine looking

DAVE Q SAYS:                                                                   

 

Strength training will help you shed fat quicker and help to keep it off long term. When building muscle, testosterone is a key determinant. Men produce 20-30 times more testosterone that women. Therefore, it is almost impossible for women’s bodies to yield the same results as men’s after lifting heavy weights. Women should challenge themselves with a weight that is manageable yet difficult especially at the last 2-3 reps. Exerting the energy to get the weight up burns calories and feeds muscle fibers, making you toned and lean overtime. 

MYTH 3: Holding weights during cardio increases calorie burn:                                                                                                       

The added intensity of the weights do make you burn more calories, however, it doesn’t burn enough to make it worthwhile. Holding weights while doing cardio can also lead to elbow and shoulder injuries or knee injuries for those who use ankle weights. The added weights interfere with your natural movement pattern and lead to compensations which spur injuries.

 

DAVE Q SAYS:

 

If you’re looking to increase the intensity of your workout,  increase the speed, incline, or resistance up and down while performing your cardio. Interval training enables your heart rate to fluctuate during your workout and is an excellent calorie blaster! For those who still prefer to be “weighed down” during cardio, try a weight vest. The vest allows for equal distribution of weight on your body and lets you perform cardio activity more naturally.

 

MYTH 4: Long distance cardio is most effective for fat loss:       

 While long slow distance cardio (LSD) does wonders for the pulmonary and cardiovascular systems, it does very little to improve your body’s ability to burn and lose fat!  

DAVE Q SAYS: 

Performing an interval-based program improves both aerobic and anaerobic fitness. When paired with resistance training, interval training has the greatest effect on altering body composition and provides the most “bang for your buck”. Try using a 2:1 rest to work ratio for best results (30 seconds of sub maximal effort followed by 60 seconds of active rest). You will be surprised how much harder you body works and how quickly you knock out that cardio session!

 

MYTH 5: Your body should be sore after every workout:                  

 

If you’re not sore after a workout, it DOES NOT mean you didn’t work hard and your muscles didn’t benefit!Using soreness as an indicator of intensity can have a negative effect, and lead to over-training or reduction in progress.

 

DAVE Q SAYS:

 

It is possible to become sore a day or two after beginning a new exercise routine or altering an existing one. This is known as delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), which is caused by microscopic tears in the muscle fibers during the lowering phase (eccentric phase) of the “lift”. As you progress, the soreness will diminish allowing you to achieve your goals. To keep your muscles challenged, you should modify your routine every 4-6 weeks.

 

Suggestions for a Healthier You; Simple tips to get your fitness routine started

It’s not easy to start a fitness routine, but once we decide to better our quality of life using diet and exercise, the journey is rewarding. Here are my pointers on how to get started and find the motivation to keep going. When you decide to start training you must understand your own fitness level. Many individuals jump right in to a fitness routine without knowing their physical condition and capabilities. This could lead to health trouble down the line if you aren’t fully informed on your own body’s limits. If need be, consult a physician to help access your current physical state.

Set big goals but create smaller manageable ones to help you along the way. Plan your workouts carefully and make adjustments as necessary. Working out should not be overwhelming. Creating tough, yet attainable goals will provide motivation and make your journey much more enjoyable.

Always enhance your fitness knowledge. The more informed you are the more likely you are to see results. It is never a good idea to take workout advice from a friend simply because they have a nice physique. No two bodies are alike and just because something worked for a friend, doesn’t mean it will work for you. You should always seek help from a certified fitness professional for any questions you may have.

Sign up for a physical challenge such as a 5k run or a bike ride. This is a great way to motivate yourself and others around you. Training for a cause gives you a sense of purpose and will push you to keep going when you may not want to.

Find strength in numbers. Partner up with a friend or co-worker and promise to push each other for the better. Going it alone can be a tough task for anyone, but having the support of a familiar face can give you the extra push you need. These are just a few ideas on how to inspire yourself and succeed in your workout.

Inspiration comes in different forms, so no matter what yours is, let it fuel your journey to living a better, more active lifestyle, and an overall healthier you.

Outdoor Fitness

Summer allows you opportunity to take your fitness routine to a new level.  Exercising outdoors lets you mix things up while enjoying wonderful weather.

 

Utilizing the environment around you will take you a long way when designing your outdoor fitness routine. For example, park benches provide a great outdoor exercise tool. Create simple, quick yet effective total body workout by alternating between upper and lower exercises on the park bench. Incorporate as many exercises as you want into the routine (I suggest 4-6) and complete the sets in a circuit fashion between 3-5 times around. Some great park bench lower body exercises are step-ups, glute bridges, side step ups, and single leg squats. Park bench upper body exercises can range from incline/decline push ups, dips, planks, and crunches. Any or all of these exercises should challenge you during an outdoor workout and before you know it, you’ve gotten your workout over with while getting a tan.

 

One of my favorite fitness tools, and one that is especially handy when exercising outdoors is the TRX Suspension Trainer.  I have mentioned these straps before because I truly believe they are provide a superior workout for any exercise enthusiast. The straps are super light weight, weighing in at 1.79lbs, making them portable.  All you need is an anchor point such as a tree, lamp post, or even a swing set to attach one end. There are literally hundreds of combinations, and modifications which provide an unmatched level of versatility making the TRX Suspension Trainer appropriate for every fitness level. If you don’t have a pair get yours here. Believe me when I tell you, that outdoor exercise can be taken to the level when using these straps.

 

Performing activities outside burns tons of calories and beats staying inside on a beautiful day doing cardio on a machine. Below is a list of just a few activities that can be performed outside and the calories you burn in just 30 minutes. For even more options visit healthstatus.com

 

Activity                                                          Calories burned
Golf                                                                                136 Volleyball                                                                   136
Paddleboat                                                                 157
Hiking                                                                            236
Tennis                                                                           241
Swimming                                                                    241
Soccer                                                                           278
Jogging                                                                         278
Mountain Biking                                                        336
Touch Football                                                           346
Rope jumping                                                              398
Cycling 14-16 mph                                                     420
Basketball full court                                                   435

Sizzling Summer Steak Salad

Here’s a great recipe for a summary steak salad. Of course you can add or take away whatever you want, but this is the way we made it. The best part, its mild preparation and low calorie. Use it as a main dish or a side dish. (for those vegetarians, replace the steak with some meaty portobello mushrooms) ENJOY!

8-12 ounce sirloin or flank steak
1 container triple washed bibb or butter lettuce
half a can of beets
sliced mushrooms

crumbled gorgonzola cheese
cherry tomatoes
dried red pepper flakes
1 cucumber
1 red onion
salt
ground black pepper
2 garlic cloves

Season both sides of steak with salt, pepper and chopped garlic cloves. Grill steak to desired your temperature. Once steak is cooked to your liking remove it from the grill, thinly slice and set aside.

Halve the cherry tomatoes and chop cucumber, onion, beets, and mushrooms. Combine everything in a big bowl with the lettuce. Add a handful of crumbled gorgonzola and place the steak slices on top. Sprinkle with the red pepper flakes and toss all together.

Top your salad with this easy, healthy homemade balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

Blend together: garlic, parmesan cheese, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard, salt, pepper and any herbs of your choice. Just make sure your oil to vinegar ratio is 3 to 1.

Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Lift Weights

1. Improve Cardiovascular Conditioning. Consistent resistance training results in lowering blood pressure and lowering resting heart rate. A lower resting heart rate allows your heart to work less to pump blood leading to improved cardiovascular health.

 

2. Help Prevent Broken Bones. Weight Training improves your bone mass density by as much as 10-15 % in as little as 6 months. As women age, the risk of developing osteoporosis becomes greater and weight training can help prevent this.

 

3. Increase Fat Loss. Just lifting a few days a week can help add up to 2 pounds of muscle in just 2 months. 1 pound of muscle helps burn an extra 50 calories per day; having more muscle burns calories; which helps burns fat.

 

4. Beat Depression. Lifting weights has been shown to improve self confidence and reduce the symptoms of clinical depression.

 

5. Make everyday tasks easier. Whether your holding your child, lifting boxes or carrying groceries, weight training helps condition your body. From luggage to carrying groceries, or carrying your child. Lifting weights can makes these tasks much easier.

What is Foam Rolling and How Can it Help Me?

Known as the poor man’s massage, the foam roll has become the choice fitness tool for strength coaches, and personal trainers looking to help their clients move better and stay pain free.  Now its time for you to discover the benefits of ”that foamy thing” collecting dust in the corner of your gym.

 

The technical term, known as self-myofascial release, is a stretching technique that focuses on the neural system and the fibrous tissue that surrounds and separates muscle tissue. It is generally recommended for anyone seeking to reduce muscle soreness caused by muscle adhesions(knots) or trigger points, that cause disrupted blood flow to a particular muscle group. It is believed that by applying gentle force to the knot the foam roll can be used for injury prevention, increased flexibility and muscle recovery. 

 

When you should foam roll is the subject to much opinion.  In fact, foam rolling can be done everyday before physical activity, during your cool down and can even be used for core exercises. Though foam rolling is meant to relax and stretch your muscles, the process can feel much like a sport massage and show you what you’ve been missing by only doing traditional stretching exercises. All it takes is just 5-10 minutes to notice a difference in the way your  body moves.

 

The method of foam rolling I prefer is to find a tender spot (which indicates where the knot is) and maintain pressure on that spot for a minimum of 20 to 30 seconds.  Doing this will increase the elasticity of the muscle while decreasing the over-activity of the muscle. Depending on the extent of the knots and an individuals ability to consciously relax, it may take longer to achieve the desired result.

 

Adding foam rolling to your daily routine will keep you pain free. It goes a long way to keeping your muscles conditioned, increasing the benefits of your workout. So the next time you see a foam roll, I hope you’re inspired to pick it up and try it out. You’ll be learning a new technique and helping those muscles you work so hard to tone.

 

Check out performbetter.com to get your own foam roll.

Timed Sets; Great for Fat Loss

For as long as I can remember there has always been a particular set and repetition scheme for fat loss.  It seems that almost every fat loss workout has the same old 15 to 20 reps, rest for 60 seconds and repeat each exercises for 2 to 3 sets.  BORING!!!  Well, I’m here to tell you that it’s time we change how we think about our sets and reps.  Traditional workouts aren’t going to get results for the time crunched individuals concerned with fat-loss.  My solution, “Timed Sets”

“Timed Sets” simply means you perform a particular exercise for a certain amount time instead of  repetitions.  This allows you to perform as many repetitions with good form as possible in a given time while varying the speed at which you do the exercises.

The reason why timed sets work best for fat loss is because it’s basically High Intensity Interval Training (most amount of work completed in a particualr time frame followed by a short rest period).  This is a terrific way of training for the individual who is pressed for time and wants  the benefits of both cardio conditioning and strength training without spending hours in the gym.

To perform this routine select 4 of your favorite exercises, (mine are listed below) and perform one for 60 seconds, rest 30 seconds, then move to the next exercise.  Repeat until all exercises are completed.  Complete each round of exercises 2 to 3 more times.  By the end of this workout you’ll have completed an intense total body routine in a fraction of the time.  Here is an example of a routine that I perform with my clients.

1. Dumbbell Squat with Shoulder Press
2. Inverted Row
3. Alternating Reverse Lunges with medicine ball rotation
4. Burpees

Visit Dave Q Fitness Onlinefor a customizable solution to your fat loss problems.

Which cardio plan is for you

In today’s post I’m going to change the way you think about cardio and give you the truth about different cardio plans and which ones you should be doing.  By the end of reading this you will understand what kind of cardio burns the most fat in the least amount of time.

Lets start by tackling the most popular/oldest type of cardio, “Slow Steady State Cardio”.  This type of cardio is by far the most widely known cardio plan and unfortunately the least effective cardioplan for burning fat.  Studies have shown that even doing 40 to 90 minutes of slow steady state cardio produced no loss in belly fat over a 12 week period.  Not to say that this type of cardio doesn’t have its place in the fitness world, it just doesn’t provide results when it comes to fat loss.

The next type of cardio and my absolute favorite method of training is Interval Cardio.  Interval cardio when compared with slow steady state cardio blows it out of the water for fat loss. Not only do you burn more calories, a majority of those calories come from fat calories.  The interval cardio plans come in a variety of schemes, however I prefer a 1:3 work to rest ratio.  This is achieved by bringing your heart rate up around 85-90% for 30 seconds, then letting your heart rate recover  around 50-60% for 90 seconds. This should only be done for 20 minutesor 2 miles, which ever comes first and should never be done on consecutive days.

The most time conscious fat burning cardio plan brings us to Tabata Interval Training.  The basic idea is that after a 5 minute warm up, you perform 20 seconds of intense work 90% of your maximum heart rate(MHR), followed by 10 seconds of rest, 50% of MHR, then repeat 8 times.  This is a total of 4 minutes of intense work and isn’t a bad option for someone who doesnt have much time and in good cardiovascular shape.

Body weight circuit training is the most nontraditional cardio plan  but isn’t really a cardio plan at all.  I prefer to start circuits with a simple total body exercise like step ups, then follow that with 6 exercises, alternating between upper body exercises and lower body exercises, finishing off with an explosive plyometric total body exercise like burpees. 

I hope this sheds a bit of light on the subject of  cardio for you. If you are not sure what exercises to choose or are completely lost on how to get started, head on over to my online training site for more info.

Another reason to lose your love handles

There are tons of reason to lose your loves handles.  To score a date, fit into a pair of jeans, or just because they are unappealing.  According to a study in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine Journal there is a  direct correlation between waist circumference and decrease lung function.

Researchers have found that men with a waist circumference 40 inches or greater and women with a waist circumference 35 inches or greater suffered from decreased lung dysfunction regardless of body mass index.  Those with larger waists typical have more fat tissue which can increase the inflammatory processes in the body restricting your diaphragm and chest plate.

The bottom line is if you have those dreaded love handles, get your butt on an exercise routine.  Exercising adds years to your life and makes and improves your overall quality of life.  Not on an exercise routine?? Head over to my online training site to get customized workouts and nutrition plans.

5 Secrets for Fat Loss

Tis the season for the new years resolutioners who planned to make health and fitness about of their lives, to disappear for the gym. Whether you are one of those people who have failed yet again at their resolution, or are you apart of the few successful individuals who haven’t given up the good fight, here are 5 awesome secrets to help you stick with your workout and make turn your resolution into a reality.

1. Plan your workout and diet plans in advance.   Anything worth accomplishing is worth planning for.  Planning in advance keeps you focused which helps you get the results you wish for.  The same rings true for your diet.  Planning your meals in advance will help you overcome potential pitfalls that will sabotage your goals.
2. WRITE IT DOWN!!!  Unless you have a professional tracking your nutrition and workouts, you will need to monitor your progress.  This will help you understand your eating habits and help you see how your body responds to different workout programs. Check out www.myhitechtrainer.com/daveqfitness to help you accomplish your goals.
3. Focus on your short-terms goals.  The biggest problem that many people encounter is that, they are quickly overwhelmed with their long term goals.  Long term goals should be set and strived for, however they can seem like an insurmountable task.  Setting realistic manageable goals will help you along the way to your bigger goal.
4. Let people know what you are doing.  It will make you accountable for for decisions you make.  I recently contributed to an article in Oxygen Magazine (April 2009) that touched upon this topic.  The more you talk about your goals with people the more supports you’ll get and the more successful you’ll be.
5. Give Yourself Incentives.  Set up incentives to make you stick to your goals.  People are more likely to stick with their healthy lifestyle if they have an added bonus to strive for.  Treating yourself with a reward such as an article of clothing once a goal is accomplished can lift your mood and give you a sense of accomplishment.

Those are just a few weight loss tips to help you on your quest.   For more info visit www.daveqfitness.com and sign up for my newsletter here